KARACHI, Nov 28: Two more patients were brought to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) on Monday, with a history of fever and bleeding. According to the deputy director of JMPC, Dr Seemin Jamali, one of the patients, aged 20, brought to the hospital was a packer from New Karachi and had a history of depleted platelets and bleeding.
Another patient, an old man, had also a low platelet count but was not bleeding and was also suffering from pancytopenia, she added saying that necessary tests were being conducted to ascertain the nature of fever.
JPMC Director Dr Mashoor Alam said that of the cases earlier admitted to the hospital one had been found positive for Dengue. We have received reports from the NIH Islamabad and taking appropriate measures for the patients in question, he added.
At present the total number of patients suffering from haemorrhagic fever brought to the JPMC has reached four, informed JPMC deputy director.
In the meantime, the platelet counts of two out of the three patients admitted to the Civil Hospital Karachi on Friday night, with suspected haemorrhagic fever, are still very low, though their condition showed an improvement, said sources in the hospital.
An official said that despite the fact that the patients, including a girl of 13, did not bleed in the hospital and their fever had also been varying from time to time, any pronouncement about their health with a degree of certainty was not possible.
The reports of haemorrhagic tests of the three patients are likely to be received from a private laboratory on Dec 1 and 2, while some more samples of patients’ bloods have been sent to the NIH Islamabad for onward journey to some South African laboratory for the investigation of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever.
The patients, Lal Mir from Karachi, Qadir Bakhsh from Thatta and Sundas from Karachi were brought to the CHK with a history of prolonged fever and bleeding from mouth and nose and have been administered platelets-tiny cells helping blood become hardener when bleeding occurs-repeatedly at the hospital till Nov 27. Normally the platelet count should range from 150,000 to 250,000 units, said a doctor.
The medical superintendent of CHK, Dr Kaleem Butt, said that after the administration of platelets and tests it was revealed that the platelet counts in Sundas blood was found around 40,000 on Nov 26, which increased up to 42,000 and was recorded around 65,000 on Nov 27 at 4.50pm.
Qadir Bakshs’ initial counts showed 6,000 units of platelets, which increased up to 37,000 on Nov 27 and again decreased to 35,000 on Nov 28. However, Lal Mir’s count of platelets remained normal since the beginning of his treatment; he added and said that the three patients being given treatment in the newly established isolation ward of the CHK had not been given platelets further.
To a question he said that the clinical picture and initial tests carried in the cases of patients in question and the manner they had responded to anti-viral treatments gave to understand that they were like viral haemorrhagic fever cases. But he maintained that the patients were out of danger.
