Telangana not reporting notifiable diseases

Neighbouring states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have reported cases of dengue, malaria, chikungunya, cholera and acute diarrhoeal diseases (ADD), among others. Many doctors in Telangana have been receiving such cases. The IDSP tracks these as 'notifiable diseases' since they are epidemic-prone and need to be reported. In fact, even dog bite are supposed to be reported to the IDSP.

Doctors from three private hospitals in the city have had patients with cholera in the last two months.

According to the recent epidemiology report from World Health Organisation (WHO), India has reported 5,275 suspected cholera cases, 205 of them confirmed, and 23 deaths, across 13 states between January and June 23. The data was obtained from IDSP.

On being asked about this, additional joint director of public health T. Balaji said that cholera cases have not been reported in the state.

Dr Chandrika Reddy from the Malakpet area hospital said that there was no way to identify cholera cases, since tests were not being conducted. “Hyderabad is very likely to have cholera cases, especially during the monsoon and floods,” Dr Reddy said. An expert in infectious diseases working in a private hospital had four cholera patients while his colleague recorded seven cases in July. The doctors were not sure if the cases were being reported to the district medical and health officials.

Another significant disease highlighted by the WHO report was influenza like illnesses (ILI) where India had a high prevalence of influenza A (H1N1) pdm09, also known as swine flu. About 79 per cent of samples tested positive.

Again, the state does not conduct tests to specify which subtypes of influenza are prevalent.

“Most patients come to area and district hospitals in Hyderabad, but they don’t have testing facilities for these diseases,” said Dr Chandrika Reddy.

The state has 28 sentinel surveillance centres for dengue and chikungunya but the data has not been submitted to the IDSP. State government data show that the state has recorded more than 6,400 cases of dengue so far this year. The only exception has been Rangareddy district, which reported 48 ADD cases in June.

“There are also a host of tests which are considered ‘approved’ tests. For example, for dengue, IgM which is conducted from the fifth day of the disease is considered an approved test. However, NS1, which is to be done much earlier, is never considered. If it were, almost 75 per cent of my patients would test positive for dengue. This changes how we record the figures,” said the infectious diseases expert.