Conjunctivitis epidemic hits Multan

MULTAN:

Conjunctivitis epidemic has hit Multan.

Nishtar Hospital has reported receiving over a 100 patients suffering from conjunctivitis in the last 24 hours.

The patients were advised to stay at home. The head of the Ophthalmology Department at Nishtar Hospital, Prof. Rashid Qamar Rao, said that adenovirus causes conjunctivitis after a change in weather.

Adenovirus lives in the eye of an infected person for seven to 10 days and then the symptoms appear.

This disease usually heals without any treatment. All one has to do is to be careful and remain in isolation for seven to 10 days, he said.

Meanwhile, no awareness counter has been established at the DHQ Hospital Multan nor data of patients compiled. Similarly, no awareness campaign was initiated by the Health Department of Multan so far.

A day ago, the Punjab health authorities had advised the medical superintendents of all government teaching hospitals in the province to remain alert round the clock to provide treatment to patients of eye infection.

The instruction came as an infectious eye ailment spread across Punjab.

The department also banned with immediate effect the use in hospitals of an injection blamed for an eye disease.

It also issued guidelines for the people to avoid eye infection.

The infection spread across the province at an alarming rate with sources in the health authorities estimating that around 20,000 patients of eye diseases had contacted government and private hospitals, including 500 in the Mayo Hospital, 481 in Lahore General Hospital, 390 in Services Hospital, 180 in Children’s Hospital, 300 in Ganga Ram Hospital and 250 in Gulab Devi Hospital in Lahore.

Around 6,000 patients of eye infection were brought to private hospitals in Lahore and thousands of more cases were confirmed across the districts of the province, said a senior health official.

According to officials of the department, the condition of patients given a specific injection of a company had deteriorated and it had been alleged that some of them had lost their eyesight. The department ordered the hospitals to stop using the injection.

“We immediately ordered that the use of the injection in hospitals be stopped. The drug inspectors and pharmacists were instructed to confiscate the injection from all hospitals,” caretaker Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2023.