KARACHI: Cases of viral fever come from entire city: Cleanliness drive stressed
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Dec 1: Expressing concern over the increasing number of patients with suspected viral haemorrhagic fever arriving at three major hospitals of the city over the past week, medical practitioners are now sounding that a majority of these patients are affected by mosquito-borne infection.
Health officials said that four more patients were brought to Civil Hospital Karachi on Thursday, while another three were admitted to the JPMC and nine to the Aga Khan University Hospital late on Wednesday.
In the meantime, a team of experts from the federal health ministry also landed in Karachi and held meetings with senior health ministry and JPMC officials to investigate the problem of viral infections, which are mainly confined to Karachi.
However, independent experts warned that viral infections, coupled with haemorrhagic fever, might turn into an epidemic if the Sindh government and CDGK failed to immediately launch an extensive cleanliness campaign with effective aerial and ground spray to eliminate mosquitoes.
Doctors at various hospitals maintained that the city’s three major hospitals — JPMC, CHK and AKUH — had received patients with clinical symptoms of haemorrhagic fever from almost every locality of the city. The problem of haemorrhagic fever suspected of being cause of Dengue virus was not confined to any particular locality, but the affected people, mostly young men and women, mainly came from the low-income group, they remarked.
According to data collected by Dawn on Thursday, so far about 50 patients, nine of them women, have been brought to the hospitals with high and prolonged fever, bleeding profusely from nose, mouth, gums, skin and pricked areas, thrombocytopenia, radish spot on arms and legs and low platelets count, since November 25.
The patients who reported for treatment at the three hospitals in question are residents of Nazimabad, Malir, New Town, Lyari, Federal B Area, Clifton, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, North Nazimabad, Korangi, Haroonabad Industrial Area, Metroville, Bahdurabad, Model Colony, Orangi, Tariq Road, Farid Colony, Drigh Colony, Guru Mandir, DHA, Shah Faisal Colony, Landhi, Golden Town, Railway Colony Cantt, Askari Apartments-II, New Karachi, Saddar, Nasir Colony, Lines Area, Mohajir Camp, Jehangir Road, Kalapul and Korangi.
The Dawn survey gave to understand that none of the patients had been discharged from the CHK and JPMC so far, while eight were discharged from AKU. Two of the patients, who were not detected as Dengue positive, expired at AKU.
In the meantime, a source close to the NIH, Islamabad, said that on Thursday tests reports of 10 patients were communicated to the authorities concerned in Karachi. Five of the reports pertained to patients who had been discharged from JPMC, while the other five pertained to CHK patients.
The source said that of the five patients admitted to CHK initially, four were found positive for Dengue and one patient was found negative. At the AKU Hospital, seven of the patients in question, three of them female, were found Dengue positive. Three women patients are still staying at the hospital.
At CHK, the first three patients, including a woman, were received on November 25 at its Isolation Ward, established very recently on the demand of house job officers who were scared due to the poor conditions in the hospital, particularly after the death of their colleague, Dr Yusra Afaq on Nov 20. She was suspected to have contracted Congo virus.
At present 11 patients are housed in the Isolation Ward and a couple of them, whose condition has improved now, would be shifted to other wards as soon as the reports of their blood tests were received from a private laboratory, said CHK Medical Superintendent Dr Kaleem Butt.
At JPMC, patients suspected of having contracted the virus had been reporting for some weeks but almost all of them have now left after getting well.
The JPMC Executive Director, Prof Mashoor Alam, said that a few cases reported earlier were found positive for Dengue fever. “We started receiving fresh batches of patients with suspected haemorrhagic fever on November 29, he said, adding that blood test reports of the new patients from the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, were awaited.
During November 26-30 period, 28 patients from different areas of Karachi with haemorrhagic fever were brought to the AKU Hospital. Of them, 17 were still staying at different facilities of the hospital.
Referring to the increase in Dengue positive cases, experts said that it was a mosquito-borne infection. There are four distinct, but closely related, viruses that cause Dengue. The only way to prevent Dengue is to eliminate mosquitoes.
Medical practitioners warn that unhygienic conditions, especially around hospitals, educational institutions, recreational spots, etc., are helping the spread of viral hemorrhagic fever in Karachi.
They say that besides upgrading medical facilities, the government should move for a comprehensive and sustainable cleanliness drive in the city on an urgent basis to check the diseases being reported from different areas.
Talking to Dawn, Dr Najib Durrani of NIH, said that he had consulted local doctors, including the JPMC chief, on Thursday and it was likely that a public health team would be formed in collaboration with the Sindh health department soon to investigate the matter of fever and bleeding among patients and conduct a survey of residential areas from where the patients were being brought to hospitals.
He said that a joint team of WHO and NIH, as well as the federal health ministry, would launch a survey of different hospitals, including JPMC, CHK, AKU, Liquate National and other hospitals on Friday.
A questionnaire had also been prepared to know about the locality of the patients and their living and working conditions, income, health facilities available to them, and the overall environment and hygiene conditions around their houses, he added.
At the JPMC, in all 10 patients were admitted till Thursday. They are Wazir, 20, from Golden Town; Shahid, 19, from Landhi; Niaz, 20, from Railway Colony Cantt; Khurrum, 20, from Landhi; Salman, 17, from Landhi, Risalat, 63, from Askari-II; Asadullah, 23, from New Karachi; Stewart, 16, from Saddar; Adil, 20, from Malir Colony and Salim, 20, Nasir Colony.
At the Civil Hospital, 11 patients had been admitted till Thursday. They are Hannan, 25, from Landhi; Irfan, 22, from Lines Area; Wasif, 40, from Kalapul area; Rashid, 18, from Orangi; Wali, 22; Jamshed, 25, from Malir; Naureen, 18, from Landhi; Dawood, 25, from Ibrahim Goth, Korangi; Lal Mir, 30, from Haji Camp; Qadir Bakhsh, 22, from Thatta; Sundas, 13, from Jehangir Road.
