Officially, 1358 dengue patients across State

State capital accounts for 50 % of cases

Data includes patients visiting govt hospital, people undergoing treatment at Pvt hospital go unnoticed.

BHOPAL : As per official records, as many as 1358 persons are suffering from dengue in  Madhya Pradesh, while in the State capital alone 743 cases have come to fore. Besides, 425 cases of Chikungunya have been reported in the State, says statement of health department.

The situation doesn’t seem alarming if one goes by official record, however the reality on ground is totally differently. Interestingly, the state-wide data represents the dengue patients coming to government hospitals alone and has not taken into account, the people who are undergoing treatment at homes and private hospital. This figure, which has escaped government attention, has probably cross 5000 mark in the state.

Instead of visiting government hospitals like JP Hospital, Hamidia Hospital, a large number of people suffering from viral fever are preferring private clinics, hospitals and are consulting private medical practitioners. Bhopal accounts for almost 50 per cent of dengue cases reported all across the state.

Government cannot have accurate data of Dengue and Chikungunya patients as mostly cases are detected in private pathology labs. On being diagnosed, the patients are approaching private physicians and so a number of cases are going unnoticed and unrecorded. CMHO records show that on an average 20 dengue patients and quite sizable number of Chikungunya cases are being reported on daily basis. But these daily data has failed to give real picture.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr Abhinav Singh said, “the names of the patients who are undertaking private treatment are not figuring in government records. Patients follow the prescription of their family doctors instead of coming to JP or Hamidia Hospitals. The numbers of such patients are quite large. Swine flu case was different as tests were available only at Government health centres so their data is quite nearer to accurate.”

However, CMHO Dr Ashok Jasani said, “We release the data we get; it hardly matters, whether it is related to private or government hospital. We try our level best to release data which is most accurate to our knowledge.”