Private labs ‘hiding’ dengue, chikungunya cases

Ishrat S Banwait

Panchkula, October 9

While the number of dengue and chikungunya cases is already high in the tricity, cases received at private laboratories are being under-reported. Lab owners claim that the increased workload has already put them under a lot of pressure and reporting all cases would mean extra paper work, which they wish to avoid.

According to Health Department’s guidelines, private labs have to send a daily report of the cases that tested positive for dengue and chikungunya, along with their personal details in a particular format. Lab owners choose to forward only one or two cases a day to prevent challans and avoid formalities.

On an average, major laboratories in Panchkula test 300 blood samples everyday and receive more than 12 dengue and one chikungunya positive results. For the sake of convenience, most labs under-report these cases or report none at all. For every case they report, they are supposed to send the patient’s complete details to the Health Department, which for them is a tedious job.

Pulkit Handa (name changed), who runs a private laboratory in Sector 20, says: “There are no clear-cut guidelines. We follow what other lab owners tell us. There are around 30 labs in Panchkula who have dengue and chikungunya testing facility. In case of lab-to-lab tests, we have no details of the patient. Hence all these guidelines are tough to follow.”

Chandigarh Tribune had already highlighted the discrepancy between the Civil Surgeon’s stats and the Panchkula Civil Hospital laboratory’s figures. The numbers claimed by the Civil Surgeon for the whole district are way lower than what the hospital alone receives. Panchkula claims to be doing a good job as it has the lowest number of dengue and chikungunya cases in tricity. Private cases being under reported has now put this claim to test.