4 dengue cases confirmed in Faisalabad

Four patients diagnosed with dengue fever, doctors say that hospitals are ill-equipped to deal with a dengue outbreak.

FAISALABAD: Doctors at the Allied Hospital have confirmed that the hospital has treated four patients for the dengue virus.

“One of the patients has been admitted to the Allied Hospital and three were sent home after receiving medication,” Allied Hospital medical superintendent (MS) Dr Bashir told reporters. Medical officials confirmed that all four patients were tested at a private laboratory near the hospital and their tests confirmed that the patients had contracted the dengue virus.

“We are confirming this with the government. Even though we have the test results we are not equipped to deal with a dengue outbreak,” Dr Bashir said, adding that the Allied Hospital didn’t have dengue wards, nets or kits to test the virus in patients. “This hospital doesn’t have enough resources to deal with a dengue outbreak,” said one of the doctors on duty Dr Amna Haroon. “We are short staffed as is, and there aren’t enough hepatitis kits in the hospital.

Dengue requires isolating the patient, nets and several vaccines. We have none of these,” she said, adding that so far the hospital had sent three of the positively diagnosed patients back home.

“We didn’t have the means to take care of them, so we gave them antibiotics and have ordered the vaccine from Lahore but it hasn’t arrived yet,” Dr Haroon said.

Nurses at the hospital said that only one dengue patient had been admitted to the hospital because he was in critical condition. “We have put Mansoor (the patient) in a separate room but we don’t have the means to treat him as yet,” Dr Ali Sheikh, who works in the emergency ward told reporters.

The Faisalabad district coordination officer (DCO) has confirmed that four patients have been confirmed by a local laboratory of being infected by the dengue virus.

“However, these cases are still being examined at the government level,” he said, adding that hospitals in the district lacked the facilities and expertise to treat the dengue virus. “There is a lot of concern and locals fear that the virus is likely to spread,” he said.

The DCO said that he had ordered that a spray be conducted and that all open areas where there was standing water be reported to the tehsil municipal administration. “The authorities will cover all cesspools that pose a threat of exacerbating the situation,” he said.

The district coordination officer and medical experts have appealed to the Punjab government and Health Department to provide hospitals with kits for the treatment of the dengue virus as well as conducting a district wide spray to prevent the disease from spreading.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2010.