Madhya Pradesh records surge in dengue, viral fever cases among kids

Madhya Pradesh is seeing an increasing number of children suffering from dengue, pneumonia and viral fever being hospitalised, leading to a shortage in beds in paediatric wards in some places. This is despite an increase of children’s beds to 1,050 from 526 in the past one month in government health care facilities.

While three children died of viral fever in Gwalior in the past month, no other deaths have been recorded by the state’s health department, officials said.

The rash of infections has led to overcrowding. At the Subhash Chandra Bose Government Medical Hospital, Jabalpur, 70 children have been admitted, although there are 40 beds in the paediatric ward. While seven of them are suffering from dengue, the rest have symptoms of pneumonia and viral fever. “In September, the number of children infected of viral fever and pneumonia have increased footfalls,” said Dr R Tiwari, hospital superintendent. “The paediatric intensive care unit is running out of room...”

At the Kamla Raje Government Hospital in Gwalior, 133 children have been admitted though there are only 56 paediatric intensive care beds.

Parents of those afflicted are complaining that their children are compelled to share beds. “My four-year-old daughter was suffering from high fever for the past five days. She was referred to Gwalior. For the past four days, my daughter is sharing a bed with two others,” said Dhankunwar Adiwasi in Shivpuri.

“Most of them have similar symptoms of high fever, stomach ache and flu,” chief medical and health officer Dr Manish Sharma said.

The situation in Bhind, Morena and Rajgarh is worse. In the intensive care ward of the Morena district hospital, 40 children are sharing 13 beds, while there are 110 children on 30 beds in the paediatric ward. Hospital authorities have now stopped admitting children, parents said.

(With inputs from Jabalpur, Gwalior, Morena and Indore)