Rajasthan cancels doctors’ leave as dengue, chikungunya on rise

Jaipur, Sep 15 (IANS) The Rajasthan government has decided to cancel leave of doctors and banned their transfer for at least a month as cases of chikungunya, malaria, dengue and other viral diseases are on the rise.

"We do not want to take any chances as large number of patients are reporting at government-run hospitals with viral, dengue and Chikungunya and also scrub typhus like symptoms. Looking at this, the state government has decided to cancel leave of doctors and ban transfer of doctors at least till October 14," a state medical and health department official told IANS on Thursday.

He said directions have been issued to conduct blood and other diagnostic tests at the earliest on the patients showing signs of malaria, dengue or chikungunya.

"We have made test free of cost for patients showing symptoms of chikungunya and scrub typhus at hospitals attached with government medical colleges," the official said.

Ample medicines for these diseases have been placed in government hospitals, he added.

As per the medical and health department official, the worst dengue and chikungunya hit districts are Jaipur, Kota, Alwar and Bharatpur.