Less-dangerous viral infections take over hosps in dengue-malaria season
Times of India | 1 September 2024
Kolkata: In this season of dengue and malaria, mostly cases of lesser evils, like lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), influenza and less-severe pneumonia, are being reported, leaving doctors and hospitals relieved. This month, just one dengue death was reported from a private hospital in Kolkata.
In July to Oct last year, dengue-malaria accounted for around 40% of admissions and almost all hospitals had recorded deaths.
Peerless Hospital, which had several dengue patients admitted last year, had none till Monday. The hospital did see a dengue death on Aug 9. But the deceased suffered from liver cirrhosis and dengue was not the primary cause of death, said Bhaskar Narayan Chaudhury, chief microbiologist at Peerless. “We have not received any malaria patient since July,” added Chaudhuri.
At Desun Hospital, for every 10 patients admitted with high-grade fever, there has been just one case of dengue or malaria in the last month. It was significantly higher in 2023, said director Shaoli Dutta. “Compared to dengue and malaria, we are now receiving more cases of respiratory tract infections (RTIs),” added Dutta. In the past two weeks, out of every 10 patients admitted with cardiac issues or chest pain, six were patients with RTIs.
Ruby General Hospital has over 70 patients with viral diseases but no dengue patient. “We had 40 dengue patients admitted last year and there had been several deaths. This time, dengue seems to have been replaced by less-fatal viral infections,” said Ruby GM-operations Subhashis Datta.
Sixteen patients are admitted at Medica, 10 with swine flu and six with influenza-A. “We have 29 patients with pneumonia and other viral infections, which are higher than that last year. We have only one patient admitted with malaria and no dengue patient yet,” said Tanmay Banerjee, director of Medica Institute of Critical Care and Internal Medicine.
Charnock Hospital has seen a noticeable rise in the number of patients with viral respiratory infections, especially with upper respiratory tract infections. Charnock MD Prashant Sharma said, “Vector-borne diseases has not risen much. But some viral respiratory cases needed admission.”
BP Poddar Hospital received 89 patients with lower respiratory tract infections in the past five days. Fifty-seven are admitted with bronchitis and pneumonia.
RN Tagore Hospital intensivist Sauren Panja” said, “We had a late dengue spurt last year. This year is likely to be a good one.”