Weather change: Sit-ins major contributor in spreading flu, allergies

Around 30 per cent of the patients are participants or have been in the vicinity.

ISLAMABAD:

The twin cities have seen a 25 per cent surge in the number of allergy and flu cases during the past month.

While doctors cite dust, pollution and changes in weather to be the major cause of allergies and flu, they also said 30 per cent of the patients are directly related to the ongoing sit-ins at Constitution Avenue.

Polyclinic spokesman Dr Tanveer Malik told The Express Tribune that since August 15, the hospital has received a large number of people suffering from flu, cough, muscular aches and fever.

“When we checked their history, many of the patients were either permanently present at the sit-in site or were regular visitors,” the doctor explained.

Dr Malik said that the flu is a highly contagious disease and could easily be transmitted from person-to-person, especially if people were living in crowded environments.

A doctor who has been working at the sit-in site said on condition of anonymity that since the sit-ins started, they have been treating 15 to 200 patients daily for fever, flu, cough or headache.

She added that the number has increased as the temperature has considerably dropped after the recent rains. “These patients usually get wet during the rain and then sit in the cold with the same wet clothes still on. This worsens things for them and results in upper respiratory tract infections,” she said.

The doctor feared that a further drop in the temperature would lead to an increase in the number of chest infections and pneumonia cases in children.

“As the sit-in site is very close to the Margalla Hills, where the temperature usually drops more than other areas of the capital, it makes people living in the area more vulnerable to the common cold as they sleep in the open,” she stated.

The health experts advised everyone to use face masks while moving around the city, especially if going to the sit-in site, as a preventive measure to avoid catching airborne diseases.

Flu and allergy cases

Talking to The Express Tribune, a senior general physician at Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi said on condition of anonymity that with each passing day, the number of people suffering from flu and allergy symptoms was increasing.

“Most of the patients have come in with complaints of flu symptoms lasting for over a week or two. Most had turned into sever sinus issues,” he said.

He added that in the past month, he had seen patients fail to recover even after being given heavy doses of antibiotics.

“Viruses and bacteria are changing but we are still using old solutions for their treatment. This is why antibiotics are ineffective in many cases. We need to study each virus and bacteria in detail and come up with new treatments,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2014.