Health experts urge govt to mandate dengue reporting

Hyderabad: Health experts are urging the government to establish a mechanism that ensures hospitals report dengue complications. They also suggest that protocol-based treatment should be encouraged through knowledge-sharing between tertiary centres and rural areas to prevent deaths and huge expenditures.

As dengue is a seasonal, epidemic disease, complications often require tertiary centre monitoring. From prevention to updating protocol-based treatment, a new approach is urgently needed for this tropical disease. Dr Madap Karuna, a consultant at EMRI Green Health Services, said that since dengue is a tropical disease, the cases may not be the same in Western countries, and therefore they may not have case studies of severe cases. “There is a WHO protocol where we get to know not much about severe dengue management. The protocols have not been updated for severe cases,” said Dr Karuna. “The policymakers also should know that the medical field is evolving; there are new diseases. During COVID, everybody was doing research and they gave a lot of options. Now, dengue is also changing patterns, as there are severe complications. Multi-centric studies should be encouraged by policymakers. We should give our data to WHO so that every doctor should know how to tackle it.”

The issue doctors face with dengue cases is that patients are often brought to the hospital in a bad state. Doctors said that in this scenario, if there is already a publication or knowledge-sharing of experiences, the feedback can be helpful for patient treatment. The private sector has been making some effort through conferences at a nominal price, but there is no such mechanism from the rural centres, doctors noted. Doctors point out a rise in the number of dengue cases until September-October and therefore want the government to initiate awareness campaigns.

Dr Karuna said that dengue has existed for two decades and people should know when to refer a patient, what type of treatment can be provided, etc. Similarly, the cost of treatments is also pushing patients into poverty. “Once a child is in hospital, it is very difficult to manage,” said Dr Karuna.

Senior cardiologist and faculty at the International Training Center at Gandhi Medical College, Dr Vijay Rao, said that while protocols and guidelines do exist in every field of medicine, sometimes it is practical common sense that helps in clinical medicine, especially in developing countries where resources are scarce.