LAHORE:
Mineral Development Corporation secretary Ataullah Siddiqui died of dengue fever on Monday here at Doctors Hospital. The housing and urban development secretary and two Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officers have also come done with the virus.
In the wake of the spread of the virus, the Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) has launched a health education programme to educate the public in preventive measures against the disease.
Siddiqui was from Muzaffargarh and joined Secretariat Services in 1986 as a section officer. He was 52 and has left behind a widow, a son and two daughters.
Some of Siddiqui’s friends alleged that he did set proper treatment at Doctors Hospital. A Punjab government officer told The Express Tribune that Siddiqui’s platelets count had dropped to 20,000 but the doctors ignored the situation to and didn’t inject him with platelets. “The hospital administration said their machine for separating platelets from blood was out of order. They didn’t start his treatment in time saying money hadn’t reached their system timely,” another Punjab government officer and Siddiqui’s friend told The Tribune after his funeral.
When contacted, the Doctors Hospital administration said Siddiqui was brought to the hospital on September 10, adding there was no negligence in his treatment. “The doctors who treated him aren’t currently available for comments,” a hospital official said.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed a deep sense of sorrow over Siddiqui’s death.
The Housing and Urban Development secretary Sohail Amir, a BS-21 DMG officer, has also contracted dengue. Syed Rizwan Mehboob, Additional Secretary in the Forest Department, has also contracted dengue and is under treatment at a public hospital.
Two FIA officials including Assistant Director Ali Imam Zaidi and forensic expert Abdul Ghaffar have also fallen prey to the virus. Another FIA official, Deputy Director Azhar Mahmood had recently recovered from dengue.
Health education
The PGMI has started a health education programme in order to create awareness about preventive measures against dengue. Under this programme, the doctors and staff of Lahore General Hospital (LGH) will educate the patients and their attendants regarding dengue during treatment process. Moreover, senior doctors and professors will deliver daily lectures to the students of LGH Nursing School to keep them abreast of preventive measures and to train them on educating people living in their vicinity.
Prof Dr Tariq Salahuddin, Principal of the PGMI, said alumni, serving in various national and international medical universities, have joined the campaign against the virus through the internet and other communication tools. While praising the philanthropists providing water coolers, tents and fans to the hospital for patients, Dr Salahuddin said everyone should come forward to help people at this time. He praised the nurses working day and night along with doctors.
He said that all the clinical and administrative doctors were serving patients round the clock ignoring their rest and off-hours.
He said that the decisions to keep the OPD open at all times for dengue patients, the reservation of LGH phase two buildings only for dengue patients and the working of 10 CBC machines to diagnose the virus have provided a great deal of facility to patients.
Gujrat EDO (health) replaces his Lahore counterpart
Lahore executive district officer (Health) left his office on Monday and went on a three month leave. Dr Omer Farooq Baloch was directed to report to the Health Department after the end of his leave term. Meanwhile, Gujrat EDO (Health) Dr Munir Ahmed was transferred and posted in Baloch’s place in Lahore.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 13th, 2011.
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This is when poor governance and corruption come back to bite us. Our politicians and lawyers spend their pointless lives arguing and passing motions. Occasionally they break the hum drum with strike calls, long marches and even a bit of murder in Karachi. Health and education are ignored or even worse. The sooner this sham democracy comes to an end the better.