NEW DELHI: Though the number of dengue cases dropped marginally this week, the number of admission in hospitals has gone up. The city logged 937 dengue cases this year till September-end and 321 more cases in the first five days of October, taking the tally to 1,258, according to data released by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Monday. Taking note of the rising dengue cases, Delhi government said on Tuesday that all city hospitals had been asked to reserve 10-15% for patients of vector-borne diseases and also to ensure that no such patient was denied admission due to a lack of beds. Dr Sumit Ray, head of critical care medicine, Holy Family Hospital, confirmed the increase in hospital admission of patients infected by the mosquito-borne disease. “We are noticing this time more liver dysfunction and capillary leak among patients. Currently, we have 35 patients of all age groups in the hospital, four of whom are in the ICU. However, there are fewer senior citizens infected, perhaps because they are staying indoors and not getting exposed to mosquitos outside,” Ray said. At Ganga Ram Hospital and Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals too, doctors have seen the rise in admissions. Dr Atul Kumar of Ganga Ram’s medicine department said there was a spurt in dengue cases both in OPD and indoors. “The requirement for platelets has spiralled,” he said. At Apollo, Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, internal medicine, said the rain in the past few days would likely cause dengue cases to surge. ” Dengue has yet to reach a peak and will increase in the next two weeks,” Chatterjee said. “Admissions have gone up, but no patient so far is in critical condition.” At the AIIMS blood bank, demand for single-donor platelets (SDP) has gone up from 10-15 units a day to 20-25. “SDP is already used in our hospital for patients being treated for cancer or haematological conditions. Now suddenly, there’s an added pressure due to dengue,” said a bank official. “At times, it is tough to provide SDP because extracting platelets from donated blood takes around 45 minutes. If SDP is not absolutely essential, then we ask the patients to make do with random-donor platelets. The medical staff, including resident doctors and nurses, themselves are voluntarily donating SDPs. We are making arrangements to have sufficient SDP in the blood bank to avert a shortage during the festive season.” Dr Jugal Kishore, head of community medicine, Safdarjung Hospital, said the serious dengue situation had been worsened by the rain spells in October. ” DEN2 is probably the dengue strain prevailing. It has high virulence,” said Kishore. “Usually the same strain does not infect in consecutive years because once you get dengue of a particular strain, you get immunity for that strain.” The latest order issued by the government’s health department also stated that all government and private hospitals that had beds reserved for Covi-19 patients could use those beds for dengue or vector-borne disease patients if lying vacant. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said that there currently were around 8,800 hospital beds reserved in all hospitals, including central government, Delhi government and private, for Covid cases, of which occupancy was less than 1% for the last 3-4 weeks. The government statement said, “Present weather conditions are the peak transmission period for vector-borne diseases like dengue. Cases have seen a sharp rise in the last two weeks but there is no need to panic as all the arrangements have been set in place to provide treatment to patients at hospitals. The state government has put all the hospitals across the national capital on alert and is keeping an eye on the whole situation.” It added, “The government has put all the hospitals across the national capital on alert and is keeping an eye on the situation. Hospitals have been directed to reserve 10-15% of their beds for vector-borne disease patients and ensure that no patient is denied admission due to a lack of beds.”
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-hospitals-asked-to-keep-15-beds-for-dengue/articleshow/94797272.cms