An unfair picture: Private hospitals being excluded in dengue statistics

Health department and police present conflicting data on dengue patients.

RAWALPINDI:

While the spike in dengue cases remains widespread across the country, data of patients visiting private hospitals in Rawalpindi is not being compiled to ascertain the true situation of the disease, it has been learnt. There seems to be no coordination between different government departments as Public Health Department and the Special Branch of Rawalpindi police on Thursday presented conflicting statistics of dengue patients.

The district police stated that 142 patients have so far tested positive for dengue in Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum, with 115 confirmed cases from Rawalpindi alone.

Meanwhile, an official of the Public Health Department, requesting not to be named, put the total figure to 64 for the four divisions, with five new cases confirmed by National Institute of Health (NIH). Four of them were from Rawalpindi, raising the city’s total dengue cases to 45, he said.

The official said they had only been collecting data of the disease from NIH and the three major hospitals of Rawalpindi — Holy Family, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarter Hospital — where most of the cases had surfaced.

He said that private hospitals had been voluntarily submitting their statistics to the control room set up by the health department to monitor dengue cases.

District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zaffar maintained that all out efforts had been made to collect maximum data from the private clinics; major private laboratories have been directed to report any confirmed case of dengue to the health department.

To help private patients, he said the administration had set up five diagnostic centres providing free service across the city with the help of a private lab, which have so far received about 1,000 suspects. As many as 70 patients with strong symptoms of dengue fever visiting these centres were referred to hospitals for proper treatment, he added.

Sharing details on developments in preventive measures being taken by his office against dengue, Zaffar said that assemblies in educational institutions have been banned and car wash stations are being strictly monitored and fines are being imposed on those defying the orders of the administration.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2011.