Nagpur: Chickenpox cases go unreported in city

Nagpur: Officially, not even a single person among the approximately 30 lakh living in Nagpur has been diagnosed with chickenpox since April last year. Unofficially, there are dozens of confirmed cases in city within the last one month itself.

Even though it is mandatory for every hospital and OPD clinic to report all communicable disease cases to Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) health department, the latter’s record column continues to be blank. Doctors say the biggest hitch in reporting every case to NMC is the absence of guidelines and protocol.

Dr Ashish Disawal, president of Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) Nagpur chapter said, “We have not received any details on the guidelines, format for collecting data and contact details of the person the data is to be sent to. Our members are always ready to cooperate, provide every single detail to authorities whenever required. Now, there is a proper system in place for swine flu reporting, and all doctors update it regularly. Similarly, we want a system should be put in place for chickenpox too.”

Disawal added that some doctors have even tried to report chickenpox cases and called the NMC’s health department but without success. NMC officials told TOI that their contact information is in the public domain and there are multiple ways to get information across. Dr Sarita Kamdar, who took over as NMC’s health officer just four days ago, said, “Even if an e-mail is sent with the statistics, we will record it.”

Both sides agreed that the communication between them needs to be improved a great deal and showed interest in ironing out the differences. Dr Kamdar said, “I have just taken over the charge but my priority will be to start regular meetings with IMA and address all issues. I am also studying what problems they are facing and will try to find solutions for that.”

Dr Disawal said start of regular meetings will solve maximum problems. “We usually meet during a crisis or when a health campaign is being kicked off and that leaves no scope for other issues to be discussed. If we start meeting even every two months, it will help us coordinate in a much better way.”