Fatalities in dengue due to improper treatment, don't panic over falling platelet count: KMC

Kolkata: Senior officials of the state Health department on Saturday attributed fatalities in dengue due to wrong treatment and made it clear that there is nothing to panic over fall in platelet count when somebody is affected with the vector-borne disease. The message from the state Health department was delivered during a workshop on prevention and control of the vector-borne disease organised by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's Health department at Rabindra Sadan.

"The platelet count of people in South-East Asia is normally a bit low than in other parts of the world. There is nothing to panic over platelet count when a patient is affected with dengue. Administering platelet to raise the count of a dengue patient in an indiscriminate manner may result in development of other serious complications in the patient," said Pradip Mitra, director of Medical Education, state Health department.

Doctor Bibhuti Saha of the School of Tropical Medicine (STM) reiterated that a dengue patient should not be administered platelet until his/her count falls below 10,000 and there is major bleeding from nose or other body parts. "We strictly adhere to this practice at our critical care unit at STM and doctors should remember that administration of platelet is required only for a few patients with dengue," he asserted.

Deputy Mayor of KMC Atin Ghosh said sustained awareness drives have brought down dengue cases in the city and some deaths took place because of improper treatment. "Many doctors and nurses of private hospitals lack training and do not abide by the protocol of the World Health Organisation in treating dengue," he added.

State Director of Health Services Ajay Chakraborty cautioned the health establishments treating dengue patients to be very careful and vigilant for at least two days even when fever of a patient goes down.

"These two days after the remission of fever is extremely critical. Registering saline in a customised manner and monitoring of blood pressure, urine, pulse rate and respiration of the patient every four hours is very much necessary," Chakraborty said.

He added that the state Health department has already circulated a treatment protocol on its website and has commenced training of doctors and nurses to handle dengue patients in an efficient manner.

"Our main focus will be to ensure that there is not a single death due to dengue as we believe that it is not at all a fatal disease," he maintained.