Varanasi: A health expert in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi has advised against relating a decrease in platelet count in the blood with Dengue symptoms and recommended Enzyme-Linked Immunoassay (ELISA) to confirm the diagnosis of the disease. Low platelet count is often considered to be the common symptom of dengue.
But, lesser platelets do not only always mean that the patient has dengue. It can also be due to other diseases, said Chief Medical Officer Dr Sandeep Chaudhary. He said that there is a lot of confusion among the general public about the platelet-Dengue relation. “People quickly reach the conclusion that it is dengue as soon as platelets are reduced.
But, the reality is not like this. There are many other diseases like typhoid, and viral fever, in which platelets decrease too,” Dr Chaudhary said. Platelets are blood cells meant for blood coagulation. The normal platelet count is considered to be in the range of 1.5 lakh to four lakh. The CMO said that a patient does not require platelet transfusion unless the platelet count is less than 10,000 and there is no active bleeding.
He clarified that platelet transfusion is not the primary treatment in case of dengue while recommending ELISA test to confirm the disease. ELISA is a commonly used laboratory test to detect antibodies in the blood. An antibody is a protein produced by the body's immune system against antigens.
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Dr Choudhary said that instructions have been given to all government and private hospitals in the district to conduct ELISA test to confirm Dengue diagnosis. Besides the department's sentinel surveillance laboratory, the samples can be sent to the SSH laboratory located at Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay District Hospital, he said.
The CMO's stress on delinking Dengue diagnosis with low platelet count is corroborated by data. District Malaria Officer Sharatchandra Pandey said that since July 2022 samples of 9195 suspected dengue cases were taken in the district of which Dengue was confirmed in only 230 patients in the ELISA test conducted in the SSH laboratory of Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay District Hospital and Sentillon Surveillance Laboratory of Microbiology Department located at IMS BHU.
In the rest of the cases, platelet count was low, but they did not have dengue. The platelets were reduced due to other diseases, Pandey said. Dengue is a viral disease transmitted to humans through the bite of infected Aedes mosquito species. As per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), dengue symptoms include fever, aches, and pains, or a rash lasting 2–7 days.
The outbreak of the disease is more common during monsoon when the mosquitoes readily breed. The pits, drains, coolers, old tyres, broken bottles, cans are the common breeding spots for the Aedes mosquitoes.
