Jaipur, Sept 15 : The Rajasthan government has decided to cancel leave of doctors and banned their transfer for at least a month as cases of chikungunya, malaria, dengue and other viral diseases are on the rise.
“We do not want to take any chances as large number of patients are reporting at government-run hospitals with viral, dengue and Chikungunya and also scrub typhus like symptoms. Looking at this, the state government has decided to cancel leave of doctors and ban transfer of doctors at least till October 14,” a state medical and health department official told IANS on Thursday. He said directions have been issued to conduct blood and other diagnostic tests at the earliest on the patients showing signs of malaria, dengue or chikungunya.
“We have made test free of cost for patients showing symptoms of chikungunya and scrub typhus at hospitals attached with government medical colleges,” the official said. Ample medicines for these diseases have been placed in government hospitals, he added. As per the medical and health department official, the worst dengue and chikungunya hit districts are Jaipur, Kota, Alwar and Bharatpur. A 75-year-old man died due to chikungunya at a city hospital on Thursday, taking the death toll from the mosquito-borne disease to 13, said hospital authorities. Resident of South Delhi, J.D. Madan was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on September 12 with complaints of fever, chills along with rashes on the body.
According to the hospital, the patient was also suffering from chronic myeloid monocytic leukemia and had tested positive for chikungunya by rapid PCR test.
“He expired today (Thursday) early morning,” said an statement from the hospital.
So far Delhi has witnessed the death of 13 people suffering from chikungunya. Doctors have said all the patients had been suffering from some chronic diseases, including kidney ailment and diabetes, which got aggravated due to the chikungunya virus.
Ganga Ram Hospital has so far reported five deaths due to chikungunya. Indraprastha Apollo Hospital has also reported five deaths due to chikungunya, while All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Bara Hindu Rao Hospital reported two and one respectively. The death toll due to dengue has risen to 14, with nine new cases reported by AIIMS on Thursday.
