Wastage of samples results in less confirmed cases in Ggn

Delhi may have been weighed down by the outbreak of dengue and chikungunya but it is not the only city to face such an impact. 

Gurgaon or the Millennium City is facing a similar crisis with the huge rush of patients crowding at hospitals with vector-borne ailments.

Even as the official figures from the Civil hospital, the sole government hospital in the city, as many as 55 cases of dengue and only two cases of chikungunya have been confirmed so far even as a huge number of patients are being admitted to the hospital due to complications arising out of the vector-borne diseases. Wastage of a huge number of samples, long procedural time for the tests for establishing the positivity of the virus and non-availability of testing procedures within the hospital complex are all resulting is not many cases of the vector-borne diseases getting officially confirmed. 

Owing to the challenges of the tests that confirms the positivity of dengue and chikungunya, the doctors and the patients are opting for complete blood count (CBC) tests that track the number of platelets.

Speaking of the challenges, Dr Pradeep Sharma who is in charge of the department that is catering to patients affected by vector-borne ailments in the hospital said: “As the tests for the confirmation of dengue as well as chikungunya is expensive we send the samples to National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) for testing. 

“This year we have received more cases of chikungunya than dengue. 55 were found to be positive for dengue and 2 cases of chikungunya have been confirmed.” 

In response to less confirmed cases of chikungunya, Dr Sharma added: “There are various challenges that are involved in tests for chikungunya. 

First, we conduct the IGG tests that finds the virus of chikungunya positive only after a week. Further, as there are various samples being received, some samples also get wasted. We are, therefore, conducting the platelets test for the patients and if there are any complications, the patient is admitted.”