Dengue stings State hard; treatment costs a bomb

Hyderabad: Irrespective of what government spent on tackling dengue this season, the vector-borne disease has emptied pockets of the citizens of the State.

With nearly 10,000 people testing positive for dengue, the total treatment costs of all when added easily ran into several crores of rupees. And this big money went to drain in a matter of three months or so during this monsoon.

After affected with dengue, citizens of Telangana had to shell out money from their own pockets to recover and save their lives from the dangerous disease.

According to doctors, nearly 30 per cent of the patients took treatment in State hospitals while the other 70 per cent mostly flocked private hospitals, small, medium and big and those in twin-cities thronged corporate hospitals that were at full bed strength for two months or so.

People testing positive for dengue, but intensity found to be mild and medium had spent anywhere between Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000. While in small hospitals the bill was below Rs 25,000, in Corporate it touched Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 for the most.

According to Dr Srirang Abkari, a senior physician from city who treated dengue patients this season, the ones suffering from mild and medium impact of dengue were in hospital for less than a week or so.

The stress for them was only on supportive treatment (medicine and IV fluids) and checking platelet count, as it did not dip below the desired level.

However, for those whose platelet count fell drastically and were in serious condition, the hospital bills ranged from Rs 1 lakh and touched even Rs 2 lakh depending upon the hospital.

IMA State secretary Dr Sanjeev Singh said that ICU treatment for few days and then shifting to rooms, injecting one or two bags of blood (each costing nearly Rs 10,000) as per the requirement, continuous monitoring and daily blood tests to check platelet counts meant those affected with serious dengue fever had to shell out big money from their pockets.

He pointed out that dengue patients who took treatment in government hospitals initially had to rush to join in private hospitals after their health condition did not improve.

In the case of suspected four dengue deaths in a single family in Mancherial, all of them approached private hospitals for treatment but unfortunately their lives were not saved despite spending huge amount.

If other forms of fevers including Malaria, Chikungunya, Typhoid, Jaundice etc were also taken into consideration including dengue the total number of people affected could be in the range of 25,000 to 30,000.

So, one can imagine how much money burden was felt on people's pockets this monsoon season.

Citizens said had the civic bodies, that collect taxes from people, focussed on sanitation and hygiene and anti-larval measures and fogging soon after monsoon set in Telangana, the number of patients who were diagnosed with dengue and other fevers could have been in lesser number.