KARACHI: Dengue cell not getting figures from hospitals
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 21: A number of hospitals both in the public and private sectors are not keeping the provincial dengue monitoring cell updated on the number of suspected cases of viral haemorrhagic or dengue fever they handle on a daily basisHad the reporting by the hospitals been up to the mark during the last some weeks the number of reported dengue patients would have crossed the figure of 1,500, health experts said.
They were of the view that the government should make it mandatory for all the hospitals to daily update the dengue cell on the number of dengue cases.It was further said that if details of dengue-affected patients were made available to the public health authorities and municipal executives they could go for a house-to-house insecticide spray in the locality to which the patients belonged, particularly in the house of the patient and its neighbouring houses. According to data given by the provincial dengue monitoring cell, the number of suspected patients admitted to various hospitals during the last seven weeks or so reached 1,159 on Saturday. On Saturday, another 29 patients were rushed to various hospitals for the treatment of dengue fever.
As many as 108 patients are still receiving treatment as in-house patients at about eight city hospitals, said a health official, adding that 475 of the suspected cases had been tested positive for dengue fever. Though the cell’s list pertaining to dengue fever cases includes names of over 22 hospitals, only half of them reported the details of dengue patients to the cell on Saturday.
