Indian Express 02.12.2010
Soon, hospitals will be able to send dengue updates online
Chinki Sinha Tags : Municipal Corporation of Delhi, cases of dengue and chikungunya Posted: Thu Dec 02 2010, 01:28 hrs
New Delhi: The government will next year set up a website where all registered hospitals in the city will report cases of dengue and chikungunya with demographic information and the kind of tests that were done. The move comes after private hospitals claimed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was under-reporting the number of dengue cases and deaths.The civic authority had clarified that it does not include numbers of positive cases done using the NS-1 tests as per the Central guidelines. Only cases that test positive via the IgM capture Elisa have been reported by the agencies. These tests are cheaper and are used by the government hospitals. As reported earlier, the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme is now thinking of approving the NS-1 Antigen as a confirmatory test for dengue. The cost had been a prohibitive factor in making NS-1 a confirmatory test for the government hospitals as the Elisa test kits cost just around Rs 400 each. The NS-1 kits help diagnose patients earlier, but are more expensive.
MCD officials said passwords will be provided to all registered hospitals in the Capital and they would be required to list the name, address and the kind of test and the platelet count of their patients. As of now, the hospitals send faxes of the same to the MCD.
“It has been decided in principle and very soon the expert committee will work out the modalities,” said MCD health official Dr V K Monga. Initially, the website will list dengue and chikungunya, but later more notifiable diseases will be included, officials said. Dr Monga said this will make Delhi the first state to implement such a move. A link to the website will be posted on the MCD portal.
While the numbers of dengue and chikungunya cases have gone down considerably from more than 50 cases per day in October, it is feared that the tropical diseases will bounce back next season. The website will eliminate any controversy about the number of cases and also help the government and private hospitals keep a tab on the trend and be better prepared to handle the situation. This year, hospitals were full of fever patients and many had to turn away patients citing lack of beds and infrastructure. With such a centralised database, hospitals and government would know where they can refer patients in case they have a shortage of beds. It has not yet been decided whether the website will be open for the public.
