Three children aged 12 to 16 died of tuberculosis in a government hospital in Mumbai due to lack of timely diagnosis of the disease. However, these children have lost their lives due to a mistake by private doctors, not by doctors at government hospitals, in diagnosing them correctly.
The 15-year-old girl was taken to a local doctor for treatment after her parents had been vomiting continuously for the past few months. The doctor did not diagnose her with tuberculosis, even though vomiting is a symptom. However, the doctor told her to take her to the hospital, saying she had drug-resistant tuberculosis. The 15-year-old girl was taken to the hospital when she fainted.
She was put on life support. The number of patients who come to the hospital in the final stages after being treated by general practitioners is increasing. This is what happened in the case of all three patients who died. DR-TB is a serious disease in children.
Tuberculosis is being diagnosed in children's abdomen, lungs, bones, brain, intestines, skin, etc. Most of these patients are brought to the hospital very late and sometimes unconscious. Many of these patients are impossible to control, said the head of the pediatrics department at the hospital.
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A major reason for the delay in diagnosing tuberculosis in children aged 12-16 is that parents often do not consult a pediatrician in a timely manner. Instead, they take their children to local doctors. General doctors face some difficulties in diagnosing tuberculosis in children. Doctors said that since the symptoms of tuberculosis in children and adults are different, it is not possible for general doctors to diagnose it immediately.
According to the data of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) health department, about 7 to 9 percent of the total tuberculosis patients in Mumbai are children. About 60,000 tuberculosis patients are found in the city every year.
Initially, there is a long delay in getting treatment for tuberculosis. The reason for this is the attitude towards tuberculosis. Delays of two to three months in treating children with tuberculosis have become routine. When children have colds and coughs, parents take them to local doctors instead of taking them to pediatricians. Tuberculosis activist Ganesh Acharya said that this is delaying the diagnosis of tuberculosis, leading to patients developing drug-resistant tuberculosis.
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