Health Services Director General Dr. Anil Jasinghe urged patients suffering from fever to avoid high-potency painkillers, especially Aspirin and Ibuprofen, prescribed by any private practitioner or a private hospital.
Speaking at a press conference at the Health Promotion Bureau in Colombo yesterday, he said that no state hospital or a doctor prescribes such drugs and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for fever without confirming that it is not dengue fever. But sometimes it is possible for the private sector to prescribe them without knowing the fever is dengue.
Such drugs could be prescribed for other illnesses, but it is possible for those patients to suffer from dengue at the same time without their knowledge. Doctors prescribe such drugs to cure patients quickly. Therefore, no fever patient should take such drugs, Dr. Jasinghe said.
National Dengue Control Unit Director Dr. Hasitha Tissera said steroids and drugs given to treat allergies should not be taken by fever patients because such drugs like Prednisolone would lend the patient temporary relief, but could be fatal if Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) and Dengue Shock Syndrome develop. Therefore, all fever patients should consider their fever as `dengue’ until confirmed otherwise by blood tests.
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