The Union Health Ministry has directed all hospitals to set up a dedicated ‘dengue corner’ inside the medical institution in order to reduce the number of cases. The direction came before monsoon season arrives to tackle vector borne diseases. According All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) doctors, every year about 20 to 30 severely ill dengue patients die at AIIMS.
“Dengue vaccine is not available in India as of now. We are not sure about the safety and efficacy of the existing vaccine among the Indian population. Before, that we need to do research as 70 percent of the population should be G positivity. i.e. a person should have previous infection. For this, ICMR is preparing a surveillance data,” said Dr Ashutosh Biswas, Department of Medicine (AIIMS).
“As medical researchers are still figuring out the safety and efficacy of dengue vaccine, taking precautionary measures is the best option to avoid it. In many cases, patients came at AIIMS after private hospitals referred them that complicate the problem further,” he said.
The India Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has still not given thumbs up to the existing dengue vaccine which is available in 20 countries around the world, he added.
“At AIIMS, mortality rate in dengue is 7 to 8 per cent. Nationally, it is less than 2 percent.
The mortality rate of mosquito borne disease is high because of serious cases. We are giving training to the resident doctors, para-medical staff and nurse how to manage dengue treatment,” Dr Biswas said, adding that a special ward for dengue patients known as ‘dengue corner’ will also be set up.
“This will ensure a system which will have enough manpower, medicines, blood bank, laboratories and equipments,” Dr Biswas said.
He further said that last year more than one lakh people were infected with dengue and it claimed over 172 lives across the country. “We reported over 30 patients who died due to criticality and one-fourth was admitted in ICU. This year, about 4000 people have been diagnosed with dengue and atleast 4 deaths have been reported so far,” he said.
Dr Randeep Guleria, Director AIIMS, said: “The problem with the vaccine is that if a person is previously infected with dengue and then he takes the vaccine, it is effective. If a person has not been a dengue patient earlier, it can create complications. That is why; the vaccine has been stopped in many places.”
Dengue is caused by Ades mosquito that breeds in clean water, therefore stored water should be changed every alternate days. It is a viral disease, so during the febrile phase a patient should not go out and stay at home.
