LUCKNOW: The fever desks set up at government medical colleges and hospitals in Lucknow saw a big surge on Tuesday with as many as 1,004 patients turning up.
The number is almost double of patients reporting at these fever desks in the first week of September when the average daily count was around 600 patients.
“In all, the number of fever patients in the city currently is at least 20% higher than normal,” said a health department official.
“As in fever season every year, patients are of different age groups and there is nothing alarming on this ground. Moderate temperature along with high moisture and humidity in monsoon cause seasonal fever,” he added. As per health department data, as many as 72,609 patients have reported at the 19 fever desks in government hospitals in the city since June 1. Of these,8,220 patients had to be admitted. On an average, 684 fever patients have reported to fever desks per day in the 106 days since June 1. This is 15% higher than the daily average of the non-monsoon period.
The fever cases started increasing gradually in September, with the daily count rising from 603 on September 4 to 1,004 on Tuesday in a span of 10 days.
As per norms, samples of fever patients collected by the health department are tested for dengue and malaria. If the sample is positive for a specific disease, the patient is provided treatment accordingly, however, if the sample is negative for these diseases, it is considered a case of seasonal fever and the patient is treated symptomatically, said doctors in the chief medical officer office.
