Health Dept under-reporting dengue cases in Rohtak, say pvt doctors

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, October 26

A huge discrepancy seems to be there in the actual and official number of dengue cases in Rohtak.

Hundreds of dengue patients are undergoing treatment at different private hospitals, clinics and nursing homes across the district. Meanwhile, the latest official figures furnished by the Health Department put the total number of dengue cases in the district at 122. “The number of dengue cases is being grossly under-reported. The figure given by the Health Department is not even 10 per cent of the actual number of dengue cases. As per the official data, 122 dengue cases have been reported in the district till date, whereas nearly 50 patients have tested positive for dengue so far at my hospital alone,” says Dr Ravi Mohan, a leading doctor of Rohtak. Contacted for comments, Dr Anupama Mittal, the Deputy Civil Surgeon (Malaria) in Rohtak, who looks after the dengue wing also, maintains that the Health Department considers only those cases which have been confirmed by ELISA test, while the private practitioners consider the cases reported positive in the card-test as well.

However, the private practitioners point out that the number of dengue cases confirmed in ELISA tests is also much higher than that being cited by the Health Department. “We recommend only ELISA test for the confirmation of dengue. The data of the patients found positive for the disease is duly sent to the Health Department. Still, the number of cases being reported by the Health Department is much lower than the actual number,” stated Dr Joginder Arora, president of the Rohtak unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

Doctors also assert that the reports of the card-test are also accurate and if the number of cases found positive in card-tests is also included, the number of dengue cases would be much more higher than the official figures.

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