Not the first: Dengue patient at PIMS not a capital resident

CDA official says all reported patients contracted the disease in other cities.

ISLAMABAD:

A dengue fever patient at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), believed to be the capital’s first case, has turned out to be a resident of Swat and not Sector F-10 as speculated in some reports.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Health Services Director Dr Hasan Urooj said no resident of Islamabad has been diagnosed with dengue fever this year. He added that the patient that the patient who tested positive for dengue has been under treatment at Pims for the last seven days. He hails from Swat and arrived in the capital for treatment.

“He is not a resident of Sector F-10,” Urooj added.

According to an official at Pims, the hospital has yet to receive any patient diagnosed with dengue that is a resident of Islamabad and contracted the disease in the city, noting that all the confirmed cases this year contracted the disease elsewhere.

Urooj claimed that most patients who come to Islamabad from other cities for treatment register themselves as residents of Islamabad due to fear of being refused by admission by the hospital administration.

The CDA official said all-out efforts are being made to control the spread of dengue in the capital, including fogging, fumigation and public-awareness campaigns.

Meanwhile, Dr Javed Hayat, head of infectious diseases at Holy Family Hospital (HFH), said the hospital had recently received a confirmed dengue patient from Sector I-10/4 of Islamabad who was treated and discharged after his condition stabilised.

However, another patient, said to be from Karachi, was already in critical condition when admitted and died soon after. An official at the National Institute of Health (NIH) laboratory said while requesting anonymity that the local health department in Swat has confirmed more than 250 people were suffering with dengue fever. He said the samples of three patients were sent to NIH and all had tested positive.

“The media should responsibly cover such issues and not report them without fact-checking the history of patients as it creates unnecessary panic among the public,” said the official.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2013.