Doctors fight on

Medics working tirelessly on the frontline to treat the Covid-19 patients continue to fall prey to the contagion themselves. This is happening worldwide, not in Pakistani alone. Shouldering a burden of care for the infected patients, doctors and paramedical staff, of necessity, come in close contact with the bed-ridden to administer medicine and tend to their other needs. This puts the health providers in grave peril, especially when the protective gear to shield them from harm is in short supply.

Working likewise in a private hospital of Lahore, a female doctor barely in her 20s passed away on Friday after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. According to the Punjab health department, Dr Sana Fatima was treating Covid-19 patients at Fatima Memorial Hospital. She was admitted to Doctors Hospital and Medical Centre on May 20 after testing positive for the virus and developing symptoms of its related disease — Covid-19. She died early morning Friday after her condition deteriorated, the department said. Fatima was also a resident at Chughtai Lab, Lahore, and leaves behind a husband and a daughter.

The same day, three other doctors also lost their battle against the disease. A senior psychiatrist Dr Naeem Akhtar of Gujranwala, Doctor Khanzada in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Quetta’s Bolan Medical Complex’s Doctor Zubair Ahmed were the other Covid-19 victims. Reports appearing in the media suggest dozens of medics in Faisalabad’s state-run hospitals have contracted the virus and been put in quarantine. Earlier this month, another doctor — a recent graduate from the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College in Bahawalpur — had died from the virus in Rawalpindi just days before she could begin her professional career with a house job.

On Friday as well, Punjab reported its highest single-day death toll so far at 29, the health department said, adding that a majority of the cases were being reported in the provincial capital, Lahore. The province has reported a total of 22,964 cases since the virus first emerged in Pakistan on February 26. The virus has claimed lives of 17 healthcare workers. Amid this proliferating pandemic, no stone should be left unturned to reduce transmissions and save lives.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2020.

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