The Hindu 29.10.2013
12,000 doctors roped in to run dengue tests
Private medical practitioners in the city can now run tests to confirm dengue within seven hours completely free of charge.
As on Monday, there were 98 cases of dengue in the city for the year.
As
many as 12,000 private medical practitioners in the city will now send
samples to King Institute of Preventive Medicine for confirmation. The
current practice by private hospitals is to send the sample to private
laboratories for testing.
This leads to delays in confirming diagnosis and starting treatment, doctors said.
On
Monday, officials of King Institute of Preventive Medicine, at the
doctors’ coordination and orientation meeting organised by the Chennai
Corporation, offered the services of their laboratory.
“If
you send samples by 9 a.m. with a laboratory request form, the results
will be informed by 4 p.m. The samples should preferably be serum in
cold chain, ice pack, with contact numbers of the patient, doctor and
the hospital,” said an official of King Institute.
At
present, if samples are sent to the King Institute after 12 p.m., the
reports will be available only the next day. Officials are working on a
system to generate reports the same day.
The Corporation and King Institute will develop more such efficient systems to cope with dengue.
Special
counters to disseminate information on traditional medicines for dengue
will be set up by the Corporation on the King Institute’s premises.
“The Corporation will liaise with private doctors to provide traditional medicines for dengue,” said Mayor Saidai Duraisamy.
City
Health Officer P.Kuganantham on Monday asked all medical practitioners
in the city to collect the addresses of all patients with fever.
Corporation workers will screen such neighbourhoods for preventive
measures pertaining to vector-borne diseases.
“Hospitals should have mosquito nets for patients, and remove biomedical waste on the premises immediately,” he added.