Measles epidemic: ‘The doctors were negligent’

Two more children die from the disease; attendants of the patients protest.

FAISALABAD:

Two more children died of measles in Faisalabad on Saturday, raising the death toll this year to 57.

Six-month-old Danish, and Alisha, 6, died at the Allied Hospital.

The attendants of the children protested against the administration. They said the doctors were negligent.

Noor Ahmad, an uncle of Alisha, told the media, “When we brought her [Alisha] here three weeks ago, she was not critical…her condition deteriorated due to negligent staff.”

Ahmad said when Alisha fainted from high fever, “I immediately informed the duty nurse and requested her to treat her.”

He said the nurse did not pay attention to his request and told him that he should wait until senior doctors visited.

“The senior doctors visited the ward one and half hour later,” he said.

“The doctors too said that I should wait for my turn…another 30 minutes passed waiting.”



Ahmad said if Alisha was provided prompt treatment, she could have been saved.

“The attitude of the doctors and the staff of the hospital caused her death,” he said.

Dr Hassan Ali Khan, the measles ward in-charge at the hospital, denied that the staff was negligent or slow.

“Doctors and paramedics are available round-the-clock in the measles ward to provide immediate treatment to the patients,” he said.

Khan said the hospital administration would probe into the matter.

“Strict action will be taken against doctors or nurses not performing their duties properly,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said, “As many as 700 children suffering from measles had been brought to Allied Hospital so far…out of them 45 including these two children have lost their lives.”

He said, “1,027 children suffering from measles were taken to district headquarters hospital where 12 have lost their lives so far…a separate ward for measles patients has been set up there as well.”

Khan said 179 measles patients had been brought to Allied Hospital in June 2013 including seven new patients on Friday and out of them, 18 have lost their lives. He said two children were in intensive care unit, 10 were being treated at the Isolation Ward, and another 10 were at the Children’s Ward. He said the rest had been discharged.

“A vigorous immunisation campaign has also been launched against the measles epidemic…Health Department teams vaccinating children from the age of 6 months to 10 years,” he said.

He said it was important that parents of the children cooperated with the teams for eradicating measles completely.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2013.