Dengue Fever in India - Essay Example

Dengue fever in India

Background of Dengue

The Dengue virus causes dengue fever which is a mosquito borne tropical disease. The symptoms such as headache, muscle pain, skin rash are usually seen after 3 or 4 days. Dengue can be life threatening in some cases but generally the recovery period varies from 2 to 7 days. Several species of mosquito are held responsible for spreading the disease. The dengue virus has 5 different types (Soni, 2016). A patient diagnosed with one type of virus gives lifelong immunity to that type of virus but the level of immunity differs when diagnosed with any other of type of dengue virus.

Aedes mosquitoes are the carrier of dengue virus. They bite and spread the disease at any time of the day but the disease is more prone during early morning and evening. Although the virus circulates in non-human primates but humans are the primary host of it. The virus can also be transmitted though organ donation or through infected blood products (Gubler et. al. 2014). Recent researches claim presence of dengue virus in new regions although the genetic variation of the disease is region specific.

Burden of the disease in India

The global incidence of Dengue has witnessed an upward rising curve in the recent decades. The World Health Organization claims a total case of 390 million dengue cases across the globe and of them 96 million required medical support. The number of Dengue cases in India has double from 2014 to 2015. Delhi being the worst hit state with total recorded number of cases being 18000. The year 2016 was no better causing a concern for the country. The union health minister ordered to conduct awareness campaigns to check the spread of the disease. Till 2017, Kerala has been the worst hit state with recorded number of cases being 9104 while Tamil Nadu is second on the list with 4174 cases. The arrival of early monsoon was regarded as one of the reasons behind rising number of Dengue cases (Gupta & Ballani, 2014). The number of cases in Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are 1945, 616, 606 and 469 respectively as on 2 July, 2017.

Type of health care system currently in place

The health care prevalent in India to cater such huge number of Dengue patients is not well established. It has been found patients had to share beds in hospitals and the government had to issue a three month registration to private hospitals so as to accommodate huge number of Dengue patients (Gupta et. al. 2012). The World Health Organization has recommended to keep at least 5 beds for every 1000 beds in Delhi hospitals for the Dengue affected patients. The primary health care centers in various villages were supplied with Dengue Kits from the WHO. But proper training of the officials led to improper utilization of them. There were shortage of Kits in many hospitals and patients were referred to visit private hospitals. Kerala has a hospital for every 27500 people while Uttar Pradesh has one health care center for every 250,000 people. The quality of health care provided from the government entities is not good enough and the government needs to strengthen the regulatory commissions to enforce proper health care quality (Vikram et. al. 2016). The purchase price of the kit is beyond the scope of the poor people of India and therefore the cause of the Disease was detrimental. The people living above the poverty line have health packages offered by private health care organizations.

Common medications and/or other forms of treatment used for prevention

There are no specific antiviral medications for Dengue. The doctors recommend treatments on the basis of symptoms. The allied symptoms like restlessness, malaise can be prevented through bed rest and analgestic-antipyretic therapy. The pain and the fever can be kept under control with Acetaminophen. The patients should avoid drugs such as Aspirin and anti-inflammatory drugs. The hemorrhage symptoms will be attributed by NSAIDS. However, other medications such as codeine and acetaminophen can be used. Severe variations of the fever require more supportive treatments. In those cases the patients may be required to be admitted in hospitals (Antony, 2014). The treatments such as blood transfusion, intensive care measures and platelet transfusions are some other treatments which may be required by the patients in rare cases.

Barriers to treatment and/or prevention

The negative perceptions of Indians were the major hindrance in preventing Dengue fever. The Indians have lack of inclination to keep clean water and other thins away from home. The Health Ministry of India has identified these behaviors as the primary barrier in controlling Dengue. Awareness campaigns were conducted but in vain. The inconsistent behavior of Indians has given level playing field for the mosquito breeding places (Dhiman, 2016). They leave water uncovered leading to suitable environment for mosquito breeding. The control activities on household have performed poorly after the outbreak of the fever. The community participation has faced hindrances such as financial, political and social which affected the skill and capability of the community members. The public officials are not responsible enough in some cases to clear garbage from the roadside. Poor sanitation systems and deprived social economic status also contribute as the cause of the epidemic.

Who are the underserved in India?

The poor or the people living below the poverty line are undeserved in India. They do not get proper medical facilities and they are the ones who are more prone to such diseases. The impact of the incident is much more on these people. They are the backward lass of the society. The government proposes plans to cater such kind of epidemics but lack of improper implementation results into unintended flow of funds.

Does anyone provide care for this population? If so under what circumstances

The government is entrusted with the responsibility to take care of them. An election is conducted after every 5 years to elect a government. The Health Ministry under Government of India is the responsible authority to provide care to every section of the population. The people living on the upper class of social status are not dependent on the government but mostly the general class is totally dependent on the government initiatives. India is on the verge of transformation phase with the vision 20-20 on mind. Various initiatives are being undertaken across the geographical boundaries of the country which are directed towards the lower class of people (Bhatt, 2013). Free medical advice is given to the patients from health care centers. The government doctors are asked to visit the primary health care centers at least twice in a week. An internal audit is conducted every month to check the progress of the initiatives. Many public-private set ups are on progress which will are dedicated for the middle and lower income groups of the population.

What are the effects of culture on healthcare in India? Is it a positive or negative effect?

The impact of culture has direct influence on relief from illness and on the belief in causative factors. The policies directed towards health delivery system must be planned for cross culture situation. India is a midst of various cultures and people from various cultures believe in different modes of treatment and the most dangerous being unscientific mode of treatment (Rodrigues, Monteiro & Torres, 2016). Even today, rural India has the firm belief on unscientific methods of treatment and in most case such methods lead to death. People also believe in Ayurveda and Homeopathic method. Such methods of treatment are time consuming. In cases of epidemic using such methods of treatment will lag the prevention measures. So it can be said culture has negative effect on healthcare system in India.

Role of the primary care provider

The role of primary healthcare providers in developing a sustained healthcare system in India cannot be negated. The primary healthcare centers are entrusted with the responsibility of providing medical care, provide vital statistics for prevention measures, educating the general public on healthcare, provide training to healthcare professionals, prevent and control local epidemic diseases and provide safe water and basic sanitation facilities (Guzman & Harris, 2015). The stated functions are absolutely essential for preparing a basic healthcare approach. Primary healthcare services provide medical support to people from all sections of the population. They play an active role in maintaining community planning and implementation of health services. They contribute in providing comprehensive and acceptable standard quality of healthcare. In cases where the primary care units lack experience they refer the patients to super-specialty hospitals for better treatment.

What do you predict will happen with Dengue in the future?

The authorities have initiated vector control interventions to keep the occurrence of Dengue under control in India. The last decades have witnessed significant fatal of the disease and therefore stringent measures have been taken to cater the ill effects. A national Dengue survey have been organized to have a rough understanding on the number of Dengue cases in India Such a survey will help to recognize the disease prone areas and the age group infected with the disease. Actions will be taken to nullify the effects of the disease. In all the measures to be undertaken it can be predicted that the effects of Dengue can be kept under control in the coming years and the severity of the disease will not be as much as witnessed in the previous years.