Ghaziabad: The health department has told private hospitals in Ghaziabad to postpone elective surgeries by a week in order to meet the increasing demand for beds as there has been a surge in dengue and viral fever cases. The two government hospitals in the city are currently getting around 700-800 fever patients per day in the out-patient departments and their beds are almost fully occupied.

On Thursday, the district reported 22 more cases, taking the number of dengue patients to 905 in this season. Overall, 104 dengue patients, 54 in government and 50 in private, are currently undergoing treatment in hospitals, stated the health officials. Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Bhavtosh Shankhdhar said that the situation was under control.

Dr Shankhdhar said that there was no shortage of beds at present and the positivity rate was slowly declining. However, as a precaution, private hospitals have been asked todelay elective surgeries in case they run out of beds. Earlier, Dr Shankhdhar had told private hospitals with 100 beds’ capacity to keep 20 beds for fever and dengue patients.

According to health officials, Muradanagar has been the worst affected by dengue in the district and has reported around 250 cases. Vijay Nagar has reported 136 cases, Harsaon 71 cases and Shastri Nagar has logged 66 cases.

The District MMG Hospital and District Combined Hospital (DCH) are having long queues of fever patients in their OPDs. At MMG, the OPD was reporting more than 500 fever patients every day. From September 15 through October 27, around 20,528 fever patients have visited the hospital. Of these, 5,938 were children and 14,590 were adults. A total of 877 patients were admitted to the hospital.

Dr Sanjay Teotia, chief medical superintendent of DCH, said that viral fever and dengue cases have increased in the hospital in the past 10 days, adding that around 200 fever patients were coming to OPDs on a daily basis. Seventy five out of the 100 beds are occupied by fever (47) and dengue (28) patients. Around five-six patients have their platelets in the range of 15000-20000. However, none of the patients is suffering from dengue hemorrhagic shock syndrome, he mentioned.

Dr Vinay Bhat, a consultant in the internal medicine department at Columbia Asia Hospital, said that the occupancy rate in the hospital was around 70%. Dr Bhat added that because of the extended monsoon, dengue and viral fever cases have increased. 

Dr Bhat stated that the hospital is seeing 15-20 viral fever and dengue patients daily and there were only three-four severe cases in the past one and half months.

Dr Vandana Garg, a senior consultant at Max Hospital Vaishali, also said that the heavy rainfall in late September and the intermittent showers throughout October were accountable for the rise in cases. Dr Garg stated that most patients do not require hospitalization. It is needed for patients who are not eating well and have complications such as vomiting, bleeding from the nose and gums, and those with considerably low platelet count. Patients with comorbidities also need hospitalization. She mentioned that they have admitted about three-four serious patients in ICU every week over the past fortnight.

Private labs are also witnessing a spike of dengue tests. A lab in-charge with aprivate diagnostic company’s Raj Nagar Extension branch said they are seeing at least 30 fever patients daily who come for a dengue test. 

Source: ET Healthworld