Five testing, screening and isolation centres across the city were made functional on Sunday, to lessen the burden of Kasturba Hospital, which was the main screening and isolation centre for swine flu so far. However, these centres — MT Agarwal Hospital, Mulund, Rajawadi Hospital, Ghatkopar, Bhabha Hospital, Bandra, Siddharth Hospital, Goregaon and Bhagwati Hospital in Borivili — are now having a tough time catering to anxious patients wanting to give their throat swabs for testing.
Serpentine queues were seen from 8 am on Monday at MT Agarwal Hospital, where five patients suspected to be suffering from swine flu have been admitted to the isolation ward. Over 50% of ‘patients’ who had to be tested, were children. “Over-anxious parents have been flocking to the hospital with their kids ever since Sunday, when this screening centre was started,” said a doctor who had screened over 100 children on Monday.
At Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar too children formed a significant number of patients. “A lot of these children have a common cold or flu. But paranoid parents are rushing them to the screening centres,” said a doctor at the hospital.
“I first took my son to a doctor at Hiranandani Hospital in Powai, who referred me to Rajawadi Hospital. The doctors there asked me to come to Mulund,” said Praveen Shah, Powai-resident and father of a seven-year-old.
Paediatricians and general practitioners in the city agreed that panic has spread among parents. “Children are most susceptible to seasonal flus and common cold. They stay in close proximity to each other, in classrooms and playgrounds, which helps the virus spread easily. However, every fever is not swine flu,” said Dr Arjun Pandit.
Siddharth Hospital at Goregaon saw 500 people in the screening and isolation centre. One of the doctors said that out of these just 70-80 showed some symptoms. “About 90 throat swabs were collected,” said Dr RR Tripathi, medical superintendent, Siddharth Hospital.
