Health hazard: A pool of disease in the house of cure

Highly infected blood flowing out of ‘blocked’ gutters at Pims.

ISLAMABAD:

Hygiene at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), the capital’s premier public health institution, has hit a new low.

A visit to the hospital will reveal sewage packed with “discarded blood” adjacent to the main laboratory of haematology department of the hospital. The sight of pools of highly infected blood near the VIP ward is a worrying sight for the visitors.

Talking to The Express Tribune, sources in the hospital said for the last one and half month the sewage system is blocked and infected blood is gathering outside, posing a threat to the health of the staff working in the laboratory, patients’ admitted to the hospital and their attendants.

The drain is flanked by a passage used by a large number of people, including visitors and the hospital’s staff.

“The stagnant water with blood serves as a favourable spot for mosquito growth; flies carry this infected blood with them and could become a primary source of spreading communicable diseases to people at the hospital,” an official at the hospital said.

On any given day, more than 600 blood samples are taken at the laboratory, according to officials. Some of the patients tested are suffering from communicable diseases such as hepatitis B, C, tuberculosis (TB), and HIV/AIDS.

The blood is discarded into the gutter pipes. However due to the sewage being blocked, the gutter starts overflowing with the disposed blood coming pouring out of it. “It remains there as no sanitary worker even dares to go there and clean the area,” said an official.

The official added a number of people visiting the hospital have been infected with communicable diseases spread through mosquitoes in the past one-and-a-half-month. “The high ups are very well aware of this, but to date no action has been taken in this regard,” he said.

When The Express Tribune contacted Dr Shagufta Hussain, chairperson committee on infection control Pims and microbiologist at the laboratory, she said a complaint had been lodged with the house keeping department of the hospital and they are waiting for the action to be taken on it.

However, Dr Noor Khan, head of Pims Pathology department, said that he is not aware of the situation.

“[The overflow] is not due to the sewage system but may be due to some leakage in the pipes carrying the wasted blood from the machines,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2011.