Dengue test results in just 15 mts at Basti Dawakhanas

Hyderabad: Patients at Basti Dawakhanas now no longer have to wait for a day to receive dengue and malaria test results. "The staff at Basti Dawakhana is collecting blood samples for testing and getting results within 15 minutes through rapid test kits. These kits are being supplied by Telangana Diagnostics," said D Sai Varun, City Programme Officer, National Health Mission (NHM).

In the past, the samples used to be sent to Telangana Diagnostics located at Narayanguda and would take a day for the results to be dispatched to respective Basti Dawakhanas. "Earlier, we used to collect blood samples and send it to Telangana Diagnostics.

Next day we used to receive the reports," said Dr Sri Laxmi, General Physician, Basti Dawakhana at Gunrock Colony. Each box contains 10 strips and 12 boxes are being supplied to each centre every month, she added. "Till now, with the help of this kit, we have diagnosed around 12 dengue positive cases," the physician informed.

As of today, 113 such clinics are functioning including 66 Dawakhanas in Hyderabad, 25 in Medchal and 22 in Ranga Reddy. Ten more Basti Dawakhanas are to be set up by the second week of November in the twin cities. At present, these kits are being supplied to 65 centres and very soon the service would be launched in rest of the centres. A senior official said that private diagnostic clinics charge close to Rs 2,000 for the tests.

The Basti Dawakhana initiative is a collaboration of GHMC and Mission of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) to provide free primary health services to the poor people in the urban area. The purpose of Basti Dawakhana is to provide free health services and free medicines to poor people.