Telangana Govt finds ‘denial’ cure for dengue, threatens doctors into silence

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has found a perfect method to reduce and eliminate dengue cases in Hyderabad and rest of the state – threaten doctors not to mention the disease on prescription, or discharge certificate when the patient is cured, or on the death report if the patient dies, or any other medical certificate, besides not talk to media, until and unless “certified by the district medical and health department.”

But the truth is dengue-positive patients continue to throng government and private hospitals of the city continue.

High pressure is being put, largely on private hospitals, as doctors are talking on various media and social media platforms about the situation truthfully, which the government strongly wishes to stop.

Government doctors have already been warned and gagged, but now, private hospital managements too are being warned not to use the dengue word in prescriptions. They have also been threatened to equivocate and write technical terms instead, like viral fever with thrombocytopenia and viral fever without thrombocytopenia.

These rationale for the NewSpeak recommendation is that such terms are not impossible for common people to understand, spell, or even say.

Karuna Gopal, a health activist, said, “A colleague complained that the doctor was reluctant to write ‘dengue’ in the prescription. What does that mean? Why is government resorting to arm-twisting doctors to hide information?”

The moot point, government officials offer as rationalisation, is to contain panic amongst people, who get scared and end up spend too much money on tests at private hospitals.

A senior government doctor said, “We know that every dengue is not dangerous. But if in a single hospital there are 50 patients suffering with dengue, it is a big cause of concern. We are talking about it, defying government warnings, because of concern for public health. The disease gets transmitted from mosquito to man, and then goes from an infected patient to another mosquito. We need to educate people to take preventive steps. Preventable diseases should always be discussed in public forums. Government is doing great disservice to people by gagging doctors and denying the truth of the epidemic.”

Another government doctor confessed the censorship at play is because the government is more concerned about its image than the health of the people. The government has also stopped attempts by senior doctors to compile data about dengue and understand the exact cause, saying, this was not the right time to undertake such an exercise.

Doctors were instead lectured upon by government officials that they must look at ways to “treating patients at lower cost and not fleece them”.

Dengue has to be notified to the medical and health department, where blood samples are again analyzed to re-confirm the diagnosis of dengue. This has not been done this year due to large numbers. Random samples have been taken, because the purpose was to clearly under-report on the problem, and number of cases, and deaths.

Dr Dinesh Kumar Chirla, senior paediatrician, Rainbow Hospital, explained, “The disease pattern will show signs of reduction once monsoon departs. Till then, the trend will be prevalent. Prevention methods being taken by government and people will control the spread, which is a top priority now, besides curing the patients.” Quite clearly, the government’s prescription for the doctors, is working effectively.