Wednesday, October 11, 2006

My Dengue Scare

My little daughter shocked us last night with very high fever. She almost had 105F fever once. In fact she had been having mild fever for last 6 days or so. But last nights extrmes really tseted our patience. Though high fever is the first symptom of Dengue, for some reason, I had a gut feeling that she do not have Dengue. But it can not be ruled out because it is happening everywhere. Paracetamol solutions had helped it keep down, but the fever has remained almost entire night.
This morning we rushed to the Apollo Hospital and were prepared to get her admitted if situations demands. Fortunately, she had not shown any other symptoms than high fever. No vomitting, no rashes. The doctor had assumed that probabily it is a viral fever. But he decided against prscribing antibiotics without any tests at this stage. So the poor but brave kid had got done a whole range of blood tests -- from Plattelet Count to Malaria to Dengue. Some results will be available tommorow.
The tests are not cheap. The ELISA test for finding antibodies to check Dengue costs Rs.1500/-. The most basic test for Dengue is a Plattelet Count that costs about Rs.300/-. It is good that the Government of Delhi has decided to make the Plattelet Count test free in many government hospitals.

No comments: