Officials told to tackle dengue on war footing

Conduct review meet once a week, Jayachandra tells tahsildars

District in-charge Minister T B Jayachandra, during a meeting held on dengue and chikungunya, suggested the Tahsildars to hold a meeting once a week at taluk level to prepare an action plan on the measures taken to curb the vector-borne diseases.

In a meeting held at deputy commissioner’s office here on Friday, the minister said, “Hundreds have acquired dengue and chikungunya fever in urban and rural areas. The hospitals in Tumakuru are flooded with dengue patients. Add to it, many patients from the district are taking treatment at various private hospitals in Bengaluru. There is no need for the people to panic as the number of dengue deaths is very low.”

The minister expressed his displeasure over the fleecing of hapless patients by the private hospitals and pleaded his helplessness for not doing much to curb the unethical practices by the private hospitals as the government is not empowered to regulate the private healthcare centres.

Jayachandra suggested the officials stay at headquarters and take necessary measures to curb the menace. The ULBs and panchayats should take adequate steps to control mosquito menace, he added.

The minister took the environmental engineers and the officials of Health and local bodies to task for not doing enough to tackle the situation.

He told the Palike and City Municipal Council officials to get the vacant sites cleaned by using earthmovers and recover the expenses from the site owners.

MLA Rafique Ahmed questioned the officials, “Why no record or data maintained on the number of patients taking treatment for dengue at private hospitals.”

To which, District Health Officer Dr Rangaswamy said, “Not all private hospitals conduct MAC-ELISA tests. As per the guidelines issued by the government, the cases which return positive in tests are confirmed as dengue.

He told the meeting that there is no shortage of platelet in the district. “The platelet is available at three private blood banks. So far, 790 units of platelet have been used for transfusion among patients in the district.”

District Surgeon Dr Veerabhadraiah told the meeting, “The government has fixed Rs 400 per unit of platelet. But a few private blood banks have been charging Rs 1,000 per unit.” tained record on number of people subjected to blood tests. A total of 213 people have returned positive for dengue.

“Dengue card tests are being conducted at private hospitals. Even if the tests return positive, we cannot term them dengue cases as per the government circular. So, there is some disparity in the facts and figures,” DHO explained.