Admn in denial, but forms rapid action teams

EVEN AS government health officials and some private hospitals in Indore are equivocal in denying cases of Chikungunya, in direct contradiction, Madhya Pradesh Health Commissioner Rajesh Rajora has issued instructions to form district-level rapid action teams to fight the menace caused due to Aedes Aegypti mosquito.

EVEN AS government health officials and some private hospitals in Indore are equivocal in denying cases of Chikungunya, in direct contradiction, Madhya Pradesh Health Commissioner Rajesh Rajora has issued instructions to form district-level rapid action teams to fight the menace caused due to Aedes Aegypti mosquito.

HT Image

In an official communiqué issued here, Rajora has asked all District Medical and Health Officers to form a rapid action team to control the spread of Chikungunya. The rapid action team’s major job would be to spray insecticides and identifying the samples taken for blood tests.

Making it clear that there was no dearth of medicines to fight the rare viral infection, Rajora also said that temophos, pyrethrum and pumps and spray machines to destroy mosquitoes were also available in ample quantities.

In all, 408 samples of suspected Chikungunya from 10 districts of the State were sent for testing at NICD (Delhi) and NIV (Pune), of which 40 were tested positive. “But all of them have been treated by now,” the release added.

Meanwhile, even when scores of people across Indore are falling prey to viral infection with symptoms similar to Chikungunya, the authorities maintain that the cases are all viral infections of various types and are being treated on the basis of ‘symptoms’ shown by the patient.

A day after district administration’s instructions to check spread of viral infections across the City and the district, the Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Dr K K Vijayvargiya has put his team in action to fight the menace of communicable diseases.

“We have deployed four mobile health units in four zones of the City. The mobile vans are well equipped and we are taking every care to see that no cases are left unattended,” Dr Vijayvargiya said.

“Over the past week, we have already checked 16,000 patients for various viral infections. From them, we have collected blood sample slides of about 6,000 persons, reports for which have already started coming in,” he said.

When asked if there are any cases of suspected Chikungunya, Vijayvargiya said, “As on today, there is no case of Chikungunya. Some one-and-a-half month ago, we had sent 10 samples to Delhi of which six tested positive.” But all of them are okay now, he claimed adding that Chikungunya – which is not fatal – lasts generally for 8-10 days and the person then slowly resumes normal activity.

Hundreds of patients have been admitted across various government and private hospitals in the City for viral infections. The authorities deny any prevalence of the disease claiming they cannot label it as Chikungunya’ unless ratified by National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi.

MY Hospital Superintendent Dr D K Jain said, “There is no fixed pattern. Symptoms like high fever, vomiting and joint pain are common for many a viral infections. Whatever cases we are getting here, not a single case has a major Chikungunya symptom — that is rashes all over the body.”

“We also send the blood samples to Delhi and only after they say yes, we can label it as Chikungunya. Otherwise, there are viral infections,” he asserted.

Consulting physician at Bombay Hospital Dr Manish Jain said the Bombay Hospital does get a lot of cases of viral infection. “But we do not check for Chikungunya and treat the patient taking into consideration the symptoms.” “There is no specific treatment for Chikungunya. It is highly symptomatic and as it is by the time, the blood sample report comes from Delhi, the patient gets well in 8-10 days.”

CHL Apollo Hospital too has a similar case. “We do not have any Chikungunya cases here. What we are treating are patients suffering from viral infection. Unless, the National Virology Institute confirms, we cannot label it as Chikungunya,” Apollo’s Medical Administrator Dr Archana Mahajan said.

But one thing that all have agreed is that there is a definite spurt in cases of viral infection across the City. The reasons are heavy rainfall, increased humidity and pollution of water bodies. “As the weather becomes dry, things would get normal,” Dr Manish Jain said.

Echoing similar sentiments, Dr Gupta, a leading general practitioner said, “There has been a definite increase in the number of cases of viral infection. There is no way to justify and prove the cases to be of Chikungunya. We go by the clinical symptoms to treat the cases.”

Choithram Hospital confirms cases
CHOITHRAM HOSPITAL and Research Centre (CHRC) has confirmed two cases of Chikungunya RNA at its microbiology laboratory, thus becoming the third facility to conduct such tests after NICD (Delhi) and NIV (Pune). For months now, hospitals in City were sending suspected samples to NICD and NIV, which entailed a long wait sometimes extending to two months, as these are
the only two labs in the country to conduct such tests.

“We could do it within 24 hours. The samples and the other required material like reagents were with us by noon and we were ready with the result by 7.30 pm yesterday,” Prof and Head, Microbiology & Immunology at Choithram Dr D S Chitnis said.

“The testing done at NICD is done by serological test, which is an indirect test while we at Choithram Hospital and Research Centre has used a molecular biology based test using `Real Time PCR’ in which Rotor Gene 3000 model of Real Time PCR manufactured by Corbett Research, Australia was used,” Chitnis said in a release today.

This is probably the first reporting of Chikungunya RNA detection in the State, the release claimed. Choithram Hospital has already conveyed the findings to the health authorities, Dr Chitnis said. To a question if the lab would test samples from other hospitals too, he said, “We can as such go ahead with the tests. Only thing is the reagents are very costly and we would need those for the tests.”

The tests at the Choithram lab using Real Time PCR gives direct evidence of the virus Chikungunya RNA while the NICD test gives indirect evidence because of its methodology, he said adding, “this way, our tests can be called more reliable.”

The two cases tested positive are for two persons from the City itself, both of whom are recuperating in the Choithram Hospital. On other achievements of the lab, the release said, “with the real time PCR, the facility now helps to do quantification of virus such as HIV, HBV and HCV. The department also has a facility for detection of bird flu virus.”