Hyderabad: Dengue to cost patients in more ways than one

HYDERABAD: The surge in dengue in the city is not only a pressing health issue for people and health authorities, but with many cases of severe dengue, the disease is weighing heavy on people’s pockets.
While the average cost of treatment of dengue is about Rs 30,000, patients have to shell out anywhere between Rs 5,000 to Rs 5 lakh for diagnosis and treatment.The average cost of just treatment, meanwhile, has been increasing in the past few years, say experts. In case of serious complications, like multiple organ failure where the necessary ECMO treatment itself costs Rs 1 lakh per day, the cost could be much higher.

Currently, several cases of a rapid drop in platelet count have been reported across the city, where patients are landing up at the hospitals with platelet count as low as 40,000 to 50,000—the normal range for platelets is 1,50,000 to 4,50,000 platelets per microliter of blood. Patients with low platelets come with severe damage to liver and intestines. “While the basic blood test for dengue costs around Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000, depending on the diagnostic facility, other tests including a complete blood picture, and tests for malaria and leptospirosis (which have overlapping symptoms) put together can easily cost up to Rs 15,000. Platelet transfusion if required (when the platelet count falls below 20,000) can cost between Rs 10,000- Rs 15,000 and go up to any amount, depending on the severity,” said a hospital administrator of a hospital in Madhapur. They added that usually the whole gamut of tests are run if the patient is excessively anxious about their condition.
Cases of severe dengue, where platelet count falls, not only do they require medical management with hospitalisation, but also platelet transfusion. In such cases the cost shoots up drastically. “My wife was admitted to the hospital for five days as her platelet count was at 1,00,000. During her stay it fell further down to 30,000 but it improved with medication and we did not have to go for a transfusion. The hospital bill was close to Rs 2 lakhs,” said Sridhar Reddy, a resident of Asif Nagar.
In several of the dengue cases, hospitalisation and monitoring itself costs a huge amount and experts say that hospitalisation is not necessary until the platelet count falls below 40,000. “It depends on the anxiety of the patient. If it is high, the entire battery of tests are run. Currently, around 12% of all fever cases in the city are dengue positive, while 5% of these are severe in nature. Only if the platelet count is around 30,000 to 40,000 monitoring is necessary. In those cases, the patients are hospitalised in the general ward. In case of the platelet count falling below 20,000, monitoring in ICU is required,” said Dr Sanjeev Singh Yadav, secretary, Indian Medical Association (IMA) Hyderabad.