KARACHI, Nov 26: Three patients of suspected haemorrhagic fever were admitted to the Civil Hospital on Friday night. The patients, with a history of prolonged fever and profuse bleeding from mouth and nose, have been kept in the newly set up Isolation Ward. While reports of there tests at some private laboratories are awaited, the patients were no more bleeding since morning, said a senior CHK official in the afternoon.
The patients — Lal Mir, 30, (Haji Camp, Karachi) Qadir Bukhsh, 22 (Thatta), and Sundas, 13, (Jehangir Road, Karachi) – had been receiving treatment for a week from doctors in their area of residence before being referred to the CHK emergency on Friday.
Talking to Dawn, one of Lal Mir’s attendants said that the patient was suffering from high temperature and had started bleeding from nose only a couple of days back.
Mother of the 13-year old girl, Sundas, said that her daughter was suffering from fever and after some tests, the doctor treating her suspected she was suffering from typhoid. However, she added, the patient started bleeding from nose and mouth on Friday and the sporadic bleeding did not stop. At one stage it continued for more than two hours, she said.
Both the persons interviewed stated that their patients showed some stability at the Civil Hospital on Saturday as they did not bleed from nose and mouth further. Doctors and related staff and attendants wore protective masks, caps and gloves while handling the cases, they added.
Sitting in the isolation ward, established in the old Burns Ward on the demand by protesting house officers concerned over the death of one of their colleagues from haemorrhagic fever, Medical Superintendent Dr Kaleem Butt said that the three patients were being treated by Prof Abu Talib.
Dr Butt said that the patients were brought in the Casualty Ward and were taken on a priority basis with all precautions as the whole city had been in the grip of panic due to the increasing number of cases with a history of bleeding from nose, mouth and ear.
He said it would not be possible for him to comment on the overall condition of patients only after the observation of 12-16 hours. Some of the symptoms being shown by the patients could be seen similar to suspected Congo or other viral haemorrhagic cases, which required thorough investigations, he added.
The MS said that three senior additional medical superintendents, three senior RMOs and six nurses, among other staff, were performing duties in shifts at the Isolation Ward whereas necessary disinfectants of international quality and spray, as well as medicines and oxygen, had been made available in the building.
