After chikungunya, it's dengue that has stung Bangalore. Wednesday saw three cases of "suspected dengue" lurking about the city's private hospitals, besides stray cases knocking about government hospitals.
The three cases — two at Manipal Hospital and one at Narayana Hrudayalaya — have been described by doctors as "very likely dengue". One case of confirmed dengue is being treated at a Chamarajpet hospital.
BMP DC (health) Manu Baligar said: "I'm aware of only one case, that of Marulaiah (68), who is recovering and slated to be discharged soon."
Both "dengue" patients at Manipal Hospital are suffering from high fever, rashes and a low platelet count. "We can confirm if it's dengue by Thursday afternoon.
The cases have been tested at the hospital's microbiology lab using the Elisa reader," says Dr Arvind Shenoy, Head of Department, Paediatrics.
Dengue is caused by the same mosquito that causes chikungunya too — Aedes aegypti, which stings in the daytime. Doctors stress that dengue spreads only through blood or mosquito bites.
Health department officials don't hazard a guess on why the government has been unable to check the outbreak of the disease. What they don't seem to even notice are the pools of stagnant water and mountains of garbage breeding swarms of mosquitoes.
Testing centre? The virology lab at Victoria Hospital is a branch of Pune's National Institute of Virology. But the Bangalore arm acts as a samples collection centre to be sent across to Pune.
"Even during the chikungunya outbreak, they were sending samples to Pune. To obtain diagnosis, we depend on the Pune NIV," admits Dr Baligar.
Officials at the Victoria facility,when contacted by The Times of India, were cagey. They neither confirmed any dengue cases nor threw light on the number of samples they've received.
The three cases — two at Manipal Hospital and one at Narayana Hrudayalaya — have been described by doctors as "very likely dengue". One case of confirmed dengue is being treated at a Chamarajpet hospital.
BMP DC (health) Manu Baligar said: "I'm aware of only one case, that of Marulaiah (68), who is recovering and slated to be discharged soon."
Both "dengue" patients at Manipal Hospital are suffering from high fever, rashes and a low platelet count. "We can confirm if it's dengue by Thursday afternoon.
The cases have been tested at the hospital's microbiology lab using the Elisa reader," says Dr Arvind Shenoy, Head of Department, Paediatrics.
Dengue is caused by the same mosquito that causes chikungunya too — Aedes aegypti, which stings in the daytime. Doctors stress that dengue spreads only through blood or mosquito bites.
Health department officials don't hazard a guess on why the government has been unable to check the outbreak of the disease. What they don't seem to even notice are the pools of stagnant water and mountains of garbage breeding swarms of mosquitoes.
Testing centre? The virology lab at Victoria Hospital is a branch of Pune's National Institute of Virology. But the Bangalore arm acts as a samples collection centre to be sent across to Pune.
"Even during the chikungunya outbreak, they were sending samples to Pune. To obtain diagnosis, we depend on the Pune NIV," admits Dr Baligar.
Officials at the Victoria facility,when contacted by The Times of India, were cagey. They neither confirmed any dengue cases nor threw light on the number of samples they've received.
No comments:
Post a Comment