West Bengal: Government stress on malaria test for dengue patients

Kolkata: Malaria tests need to be carried out alongside dengue, even if a patient tests positive for the latter, the expert committee set up by the state government to improve medical care for dengue patients and streamlining the testing process told doctors and medical officers at a meeting in Swasthya Bhawan on Thursday.

Though dengue infection rate has dipped substantially over the past few weeks, a significant number of cases as well as deaths continue to be reported, prompting the government to set up the experts panel to look at where things may be going wrong. The committee has now identified the overlap of dengue and malaria cases as one of the likely reasons.

The expert panel pointed out the anopheles mosquito that causes malaria is likely to be in circulation wherever aedes aegypti, which causes dengue, breeds.

“If the treating doctors concentrate only on dengue treatment while a patient may have undetected malaria, the latter can die in the absence of anti-malaria drugs. So, a patient has to be tested for both to enable a quick diagnosis,” the panel told medical officers attending the virtual conference.

Experts pointed out that often danger signals are missed and if these signals are not picked up immediately, a patient is likely to get into an irreversible shock very quickly and die. They suggested more involvement of nurses. Fluid overload in dengue treatment, re-testing of symptomatic patients for dengue and malaria, if the first report is negative and giving the correct doses of malaria drugs were among the other issues discussed.

The committee, including infectious diseases specialists Yogiraj Ray from IPGMER and Soumen Haldar of School of Tropical Medicine, paediatrician Mihir Sarkar of Medical College and Hospital Kolkata and medicine specialist Jyotirmoy Pal of Barasat Government Medical College and Hospital, will hold a similar session for private hospital doctors on Friday.

On Thursday, state urban development and municipal affairs minister, Firhad Hakim, also held a virtual meeting with representatives of civic bodies and asked them to initiate administrative action against owners of abandoned houses if they fail to comply with clean up notices.