The number of dengue patients is on the rise again but so is awareness among people about the mosquito-borne disease, said doctors in the city.
Several hospitals said there has been a spurt in admission of dengue patients in the past two days. However, doctors said patients and their relatives were not panicking about low platelet counts and not insisting on transfusion, unlike in the past.
“This time, there seems to be less panic and more awareness about dengue among patients and their relatives, although the number of admissions seems to be higher than last year. This time, patients’ relatives are not insisting on blood platelet transfusion unlike earlier,” said Chandramouli Bhattacharya, infectious diseases specialist at Peerless Hospital.
Advisories from the Union health ministry and the state health department say a dengue patient should undergo blood platelet transfusion if the count is below 10,000 per cubic millimetre or if there is severe haemorrhage.
“Earlier, patients’ relatives would insist on platelet transfusion even if the count was much above the advised level. But this time they are listening to the doctor’s advice about the requirement of transfusion,” said Bhattacharya.
He said this year he noticed more patients were getting themselves tested within two or three days of the onset of fever. Patients were coming to the hospital if they tested positive, he said.
Peerless Hospital has seen a spurt in dengue admissions since Monday.
“There were 42 patients admitted a week back, but since then the number had gone down to 22 on Sunday morning. Since Monday, the number started rising again and on Tuesday, there are 51 dengue patients admitted,” said Sudipta Mitra, chief executive of Peerless Hospital.
He said there were 23 admissions on a single day — Monday. Most of the dengue cases are from Calcutta and North and South 24-Parganas. Three of the patients are in the critical care unit.
At Belle Vue Clinic, too, there was a rise in dengue admissions since Sunday.
“The number of dengue patients admitted has gone up from 25 on Sunday to 30 on Tuesday,” said Pradip Tondon, CEO of Belle Vue.
He said many patients were reporting complications involving the liver and other organs.
At RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, the number of admitted patients has gone up from 10 on Sunday to 12 on Tuesday, said R. Venkatesh, group COO, Narayana Health, which runs the hospital at Mukundapur.
“This time, there is more awareness among people and less demand for platelet transfusion,” said Sauren Panja, clinical lead of the critical care department at RN Tagore hospital. “But we are noticing involvement of the liver in dengue patients recently, compared to few weeks back,” he said.
Amitabha Saha, head of the critical care unit at AMRI Hospital, Mukundapur, said although the awareness was better this time among most patients, particularly from the city and surrounding areas, there were still a few who were coming in critical conditions.
“They have ignored warning signs like persistent vomiting, abdominal pain, persistent headache, rash and decrease in urine output while being treated at home. One should not ignore the warning signals,” said Saha.