MULTAN: A woman allegedly died of swine flu and two other patients have been admitted after exhibiting symptoms of the disease in Nishtar Hospital Multan.
Nishtar Hospital doctors have taken blood samples of the two patients and sent them to Lahore to confirm the swine flu diagnosis.
Last week Daulat Gate resident Sadaf Bibi, Javed Iqbal, and Asma Jaffery were brought in to Nishtar Hospital after they began to exhibit swine flu symptoms. Sadaf Bibi died on Tuesday afternoon. Doctors have sent blood samples of Javed Iqbal and Asma Jaffery to Lahore for confirmation.
The Punjab Health Department recently issued warnings in this regard and all district health officers were given special instructions to create awareness about swine flu among the local community.
A separate office has been given the responsibility for controlling swine flu in Punjab and the office headquarters have been based in directorate general health office in Lahore.
Talking to The Express Tribune district health officer (DHO) Islam Zafar said that isolation wards had been set up in all the district hospitals with six beds each for male and female patients. “We have been hearing warnings of a swine flu outbreak for a couple of weeks and we were prepared for it,” he said. “We are still waiting to confirm all three cases because the deceased woman’s blood sample results haven’t arrived from Lahore,” Zafar said.
Major diagnosis of the disease is now not restricted to National Institute of Health in Islamabad but the H1N1 virus test has been provided at the Institute of Public Health in Lahore. Islam Zafar said that according to the instructions of the Punjab director general health Dr Aslam Choudary Tami, swine flu tablets were now being made available in the hospitals and public places. “The pills are not a cure but they slow down the symptoms and allow us to diagnose and treat each case,” Dr Tami said, adding that these pills were being widely distributed so that the public could safeguard against the disease and so that district hospitals could buy enough time to test for the virus.
Swine flu and H1N1 vaccinations of swine flu are available in sufficient number all over the province to ensure safety measures against the disease. Vaccinations and tablets to control the disease are also available at all basic health units and rural centres in Punjab. Awareness schemes have been also been launched in rural areas of the Punjab, especially in southern Punjab.
“We are hoping for good news that it is something else but we are waiting on the results,” said Asma Jaffery’s mother Ismat Bibi, adding that doctors had told her that her daughter’s condition was currently stable.
25 cases have of swine flu have been reported in Punjab so far.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ