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With four more victims of chickenpox admitted to Allied Hospital, a teaching hospital affiliated with Punjab Medical College, the number of patients has surged to 50 on Wednesday.
Hospital sources revealed that condition of Asghar Ali, a resident of Miani Wala, was critical and he has been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). According to the hospital sources, the condition of seven other patients being treated in the isolation ward was also critical. It is also alarming that two doctors and a nurse of Allied Hospital have contracted chickenpox while treating the patients.
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In 2016, as many as 28 chickenpox patients had been admitted in Allied Hospital. The hospital record revealed that in the first three months of the current year, 21 patients of chickenpox were admitted to Allied Hospital. Out of these 21 patients, six have died, 11 were discharged while four were still under treatment.
In April, another 40 patients were admitted with chickenpox symptoms and six of them died during treatment. There is a growing number of patients of chickenpox undergoing treatment in private and public hospitals of the Faisalabad region. The exact number of such patients is unavailable while the local health authorities are not monitoring such cases to take immediate measures to check spread of chicken pox diseases in and Faisalabad vicinity.
It seems the health department has failed to combat chickenpox breakout in the city owing to non-availability of vaccination in hospitals.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Muhammad Aslam, a former medical officer at Divisional Headquarters Hospital Faisalabad, said the symptoms of the chickenpox include headache a day or so before rashes appears whereas spots develop into small itchy blisters. These blisters spread all over the body in short span of time.
He said the disease was under control but now for unknown reasons there was a surge in the cases of chickenpox. He said the disease could prove fatal for infants and toddlers.
“There is a need to launch a campaign to educate citizens about chickenpox and vaccination on early stage so that the alarmingly surge of chickenpox could be controlled in Faisalabad,” he suggested.
Dr Muhammad Jamil, a senior physician, told The Express Tribune that spread of chickenpox in Faisalabad clearly indicated the failure of health authorities in taking preventive measures such as administering chickenpox vaccination to the newly born.
“Gone are the days when vaccinators of the health departments were seen actively working to check chickenpox and announcements were made on loudspeakers from mosques to motivate citizens to get their children administered chickenpox vaccine,” he remarked.
“With the advent of advance communication tools, such vaccination campaigns should have become more effective and timely but the health authorities’ attitude of indifference is the main cause behind the spread of chickenpox in Faisalabad and its vicinity,” Dr Jamil commented.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken notice of the alarming surge in chickenpox in Faisalabad which has already claimed the lives of 12 people in the past 90 days.
The chief minister also directed the district administration to take prompt measures for the treatment of all such patients on priority basis and provide them maximum facilities.
“Official statements issued on health and other matters have become only a lip service. The actual outcome and results are never made public,” a former HRCP member Muhammad Zaman Khan remarked.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2017.
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