Express Message Service
CHENNAI: Doctors are observing a slight decline in fever cases in the past week after peaking last month. They said it could be due to school closures and pooja holidays. Doctors TNIE spoke to said cases of fever were down 10 to 20 percent. However, this could be temporary and cases could increase as schools reopen and the northeast monsoon hits.
Doctors at the Institute for Child Health and Children’s Hospital in Egmore said: “We used to take 80 to 90 cases a day. Now it’s down about 10 cases. We also have 1-2 H1N1 and dengue cases, but they are not very sick,” said Dr. S Srinivasan, Nodal Officer for Child Health.
The doctor said when it comes to H1N1 flu, they follow the Public Health Directorate’s guidelines for testing. “We only test Category C cases, which are very sick children. Most patients are not very ill and recover quickly,” said Dr. Srinivasan.
dr Janani Sankar, deputy medical director of Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital, said fever cases at her hospital had decreased from the third week of September. dr C. Rajendran, senior general practitioner at Billroth Hospital, said all illnesses are associated with fever.
“We are not ruling out Covid-19, dengue, H1N1 flu and common flu. We also look for bacterial or other viral infections.” Most fever patients recovered within 3-10 days and not many became very ill.
“Lately people with diarrhea come after fever. In such cases, we do not rule out food poisoning and other things. We then start hydrating the patient,” said Dr. Rajendran.
In any case, people should continue to observe precautions such as wearing face masks, covering their nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing, and maintaining social distancing. Wherever there are crowds, the likelihood of viral infections spreading increases.
dr Rajendran said the data from the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said there are 327 active cases of H1N1 and 384 active cases of dengue in the state.
