Patients panic, demand tests even for common cold

Hundreds of panicked patients have been lining up at city hospitals demanding coronavirus tests, though doctors insist that they only have a common cold and mild fever. At least 90% of people that doctors at the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases tested so far have come voluntarily.

“These are patients with a travel history,” director of the institute Nagaraja C said. “Most of the patients we’ve seen so far have travelled to South East Asia, Singapore and Italy.”

Dr Nagaraja pointed out that the patients just have a mild cough and fever, but insisted that they be tested for coronavirus. But doctors later advice them against it. “There’s bound to be anxiety during times like this,” he explained. “Patients returning from foreign countries panic and are asked to go through the test. It could just be a fever.”

Jawaid Akhtar, additional chief secretary, department of health and family welfare, said in a recent social media video that some hospitals are handling crowds demanding coronavirus testing, adding: “In quite a few cases, it (the test) is not necessary.”

Akhtar urged people to test only if they had visited a coronavirus-affected country in the past 14 days and have interacted closely with citizens of the affected country.

R Mahesh Gowda, director, Spandana Healthcare, believed that the kind of fear seen over spreading of the coronavirus could affect those already having psychiatric conditions.

“Someone with an obsessive compulsive disorder, for instance, tends to keep washing their hands often already. The fear of the virus affecting them only exacerbates the condition,” he said. Even if coronavirus subsides worldwide, the excessive washing among psychiatric patients would continue since they would worry over the virus’ possible reappearance, Dr Gowda added.

“Some with anxiety could panic. They would like to make sure every step is taken and restrictions are in place, while there is another category (of patients) that tends to be the least concerned and assume (the virus) won’t affect them.”

Meanwhile, Arogya Sahayavani, a helpline run by the state’s health department, has received 9,705 calls on Covid-19 alone since the cases were first reported.