Chennai, Sep 28 (IANS): Hospitals across Tamil Nadu are expanding fever treatment facilities as dengue and other viral infections bring more patients to outpatient departments ahead of the Northeast Monsoon.
In Chennai, the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in Egmore is scheduled to open a 60-bed ward to accommodate children with fever and ease pressure on its existing wards.
Private hospitals in the city have also reported a rise in respiratory infections, influenza and dengue.
Outpatient areas and wards have grown crowded, and patients at some hospitals have faced waits of up to 12 hours for a bed.
Doctors said most infections they were seeing were mild, even as the number of patients strained facilities.
Tamil Nadu had recorded about 19,000 dengue cases and nine deaths this year up to Sunday. Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruvallur, and Chengalpattu are among the districts reporting higher numbers of fever cases.
The state has conducted about 2.24 lakh dengue tests and is monitoring fever cases through 5,818 government and private medical facilities. More than 26,300 health workers have been deployed for field surveillance and response.
Chennai reported more than 3,000 fever cases in the first 20 days of September, including 180 dengue cases. In August, the city recorded about 4,500 fever cases, including 160 dengue cases. Adyar, Anna Nagar, and Valasaravakkam have reported relatively higher numbers, prompting closer monitoring in those areas.
The Greater Chennai Corporation has stepped up mosquito-control work across its 15 zones following intermittent rain. Teams are visiting homes, removing stagnant water and other potential breeding sites, applying larvicide and carrying out fogging. Officials have been instructed to collect regular fever reports from private hospitals and inspect the areas around patients’ homes for mosquito breeding.
Government hospitals elsewhere in the state are preparing beds, fever wards, testing facilities, medicines and equipment for a possible increase in admissions. A government medical college hospital in Thoothukudi has set aside 100 beds in separate dengue wards for adults and children.
The Health Department has described the dengue numbers as consistent with the seasonal pattern, rather than an unusually severe outbreak. With the Northeast Monsoon approaching and patients continuing to seek care, hospitals and civic authorities are maintaining additional capacity and surveillance.
