KARACHI, Nov 3: The International Centre for Chemical Sciences (ICCS), University of Karachi, announced on Friday that the diagnostic and clinical research facilities would be available free of cost for deserving patients.
The announcement to this effect was made by the Acting Director of ICCS, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Choudhry.He said these facilities would be available at Dr Panjwani Centre For Molecular Medicine and Drug Research, University of Karachi, for free of cost test of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF).
He stated that this was decided in a meeting held at HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry.
Prof Dr Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary, who chaired the meeting, said first and comprehensive test for DHF was now available in our diagnostic laboratory at cost-to-cost basis while free of cost for non-affording patients.
He stated that recent outbreak of dengue fever had attracted tremendous attention of public health sector, while this had also raised a number of critical questions, including the use of herbal remedies for the treatment of DHF.
Prof. Choudhry said although herbal remedies were scientifically proven to be effective for treatment of a very large number of diseases, their use in a lethal disease, such as DHF, was not advisable.
The DHF is a viral disease which spreads through a mosquito vector and effects the RBCs in blood and requires an urgent medical attention with most appropriate anti-viral and anti-infectious chemotherapy in the hospital conditions with periodic blood transfusion and monitoring of disease by current diagnostic methods.
No anti-viral chemotherapy are available throughout the world; only supportive measures are required, he said.He said herbal remedies function in a slow manner and certain medicinal herbs were considered to be most appropriate for the treatment of chronic disorders, as well as for the prevention of the disease.
Prof. Choudhry added that so far there was no authentic recent scientific work that established the efficacy of herbal remedies in dengue fever.—APP
