Lingering fever delays discharge of dengue patients, clogs hosp beds

Kolkata: Hospital occupancy period of dengue patients has gone up due to a persistent fever that has been continuing for a week to two on an average. This has led to a bed crisis, forcing one of the hospitals to shut down admission for two days. Scores of patients have had a low, recurring fever, raising fears of a re-infection and making hospitals wary of discharging them.Duration of fever and hospital stay would be restricted to a week during previous outbreaks. That would help keep the turnover of patients high and ensure regular and quick vacancies. This time, several are being refused admission at private hospitals and the waiting time for those with severe symptoms has gone up to four hours or even a day.At BP Poddar Hospital, which stopped new admissions on Wednesday but resumed it on Saturday, the average occupancy period of a dengue patient has been ranging between seven and eight days. “Earlier, it would be restricted to five-six days. A lingering weakness in dengue patients has forced us to delay discharge. We have also received many with dual infection of dengue and malaria,” said BP Poddar Group CEO Supriyo Chakrabarty. The hospital has 51 dengue patients.Fever could linger in dengue patients either due to a secondary infection or a cytokine storm, according to AMRI infectious diseases physician Sayan Chakrabarty. “We have received a few patients with secondary infection along with dengue whose fever lasted eight-10 days. There were others who suffered a cytokine storm or hyper-immune reaction that had led to a persisting fever. Dual infection of malaria and dengue or dengue and scrub typhus have also led to a continuing low-grade fever for one to two weeks in some patients,” said Chakrabarty. The average recovery period of dengue patients at AMRI has been around five-six days, said CEO Rupak Barua.Lingering fever and weakness have been holding back patients at Woodlands Multispecialty Hospital as well. “Dengue strikes with slightly altered symptoms during each outbreak and it has been no different this time. Fever has been persisting longer this time, though severity of symptoms, including platelet drop, has been less frequent so far,” said Biswajit Ghosh Dastidar, director of general medicine at Woodlands. The hospital is running almost full due to rush of patients with dengue and respiratory infections, said Woodlands CEO Rupali Basu. RN Tagore hospital is trying to enhance process efficiency to discharge patients faster to vacate beds, said COO R Venkatesh.
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