Amid Delhi's Dengue Outbreak, How Medical Students Are Helping Out

New Delhi: It was when three-year-old Tara's fever touched a high of 102 degrees on Monday that her frantic mother brought her to a tiny 'fever clinic' cramped in the narrow lanes of Garhi in South Delhi.

Tara has dengue but now she is much better and her mother much calmer thanks to the medical students who counselled her at the Delhi government dispensaries that have now doubled up as fever clinics.

Amid Delhi's worst dengue outbreak in five years, the Delhi government has opened 55 such clinics in its existing dispensaries which are open from 7 am to 9 pm including weekends.

Some 250 second-year students of Maulana Azad Medical College have been deputed to fever clinics across the capital to work in pairs in two four-hour shifts every day where they are helping out the doctors by recording patient details and alerting patients on symptoms and the course of treatment.

"We have a fever card and a checklist of dengue symptoms based on which we counsel the patients," said Srishti a medical student working at the clinic.
  
The 'fever card' is where where they take down the medical history, temperature and symptoms of a patient.

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Patients say due to a shortage of manpower in hospitals and clinics, they are often clueless about whom to approach and where to go for tests.

The students say that's where they step in and usher the patients through the course at the clinics. After the initial counselling, patients are sent to the doctors where the necessary treatment is prescribed.

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Dr Shashi Rawlley at the fever clinic said, "Although the students cannot help with medical procedures, they are helping by calming the families who are in panic mode. As doctors and nurses are working round the clock during this crisis, these students are helping by creating awareness and reducing the panic that surrounds dengue fever."

More than 25 people have died from dengue in Delhi this year and over 3,000 cases have reported. Both the Centre and the Delhi government have been served notices by the human rights commission over reports that several patients of dengue died allegedly after being denied admission to hospitals in the national capital.