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AIIMS helpline to educate Delhi
As the dengue war threatens to slips out of control, the medical fraternity has turned to another weapon: awareness, reports Vidya Krishnan.
As the dengue war threatens to slips out of control, the medical fraternity has turned to another weapon: awareness. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will start a dengue helpline from Friday to educate people about the spreading outbreak.
In the last 24-hours, two patients died at the hospital of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). A total of 1000 patients were screened and 34 admitted for the disease. Nine of these cases were reported from the AIIMS campus. Ninety-nine patients are admitted at AIIMS now.
"With the disease escalating everyday, educating people will be the only way to control the outbreak. People can call our helpline with their queries and our panel of doctors will help them. Alternatively, they can send us their queries via e-mail and we will reply to them promptly. We will announce the helpline number on Friday," said Dr Shakti Gupta, AIIMS spokesman. The e-mail address is dengueprevention@gmail.com.
The institute will also organize a public lecture on dengue at the Jawaharlal Auditorium on Friday.
On Thursday, 55-year-old Laxmi Narayan from Bulandshaher succumbed to DHF at AIIMS. The patient had come in the morning and died within few hours of her arrival. The day's second victim, 20-year-old Dharam Singh from Badarpur. died in the morning. "Both the patients came to us in a critical state. Their condition had already deteriorated and both died within hours of being admitted," said Dr DK Sharma, Medical Superintendent, AIIMS.
The institute has cut down on routine admission to accommodate the dengue cases.
"We are not turning down any emergency case. Only the patients who can wait are being told to come later. Surgeries are not being postponed. We are mobilizing more staff to handle the additional workload," added Dr Sharma.
The AIIMS administration appealed to general public get cases of simple fever treated at the neighbourhood hospital and not add to the patient rush.
"This is a referral hospital but we are not turning away any patient. Of the 1000 patients we screened today, only 34 were confirmed dengue cases. Only those who have been tested positive for dengue are admitted. We will be able to give better care to the positive cases if the patient inflow was lesser," said Dr Randeep Guleria, Professor of Medicine, AIIMS.
