November 29, 2008	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 30, 1429

PESHAWAR, Nov 28: Twenty per cent of the patients, who visited the health facilities from February to October in Peshawar district this year, suffered from respiratory problems, said a report of the health department.

It said that the nine-month report has been prepared from the data recorded through the Disease Early Warning System (Dews), which was launched early this year by the health department in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

It said that 401,555 patients visited city hospitals including the Khyber Teaching Hospital, Lady Reading Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex. Of them 82,154 (20 per cent) consultations were related to respiratory diseases, 68,691 (17 per cent) had diarrhoea and 43,645 (11 per cent) were seen for urinary tract infection.

Three per cent of the patients underwent medical checkups for dysentery and five per cent of the patients visiting the facilities were found to have suffered from unspecified skin and infections associated with high-grade fever, it said. The Dews is aiming to have information about the epidemics and quantum of various ailments, was introduced last year by the WHO to cope with the outbreaks and epidemics, specially during national calamities such as floods and earthquakes.

Doctors and health staff had already been given training on maintaining and updating of the Dews charts on weekly basis that were then sent to the provincial directorate of health for compilation of data.

The report covering the patients’ record from the 6th to 43rd week shows that 17,166 patients were examined at the outpatients departments of the health outlets. They included 28 per cent children less than five years of age, 24 per cent were between 6 to 14 years, 29 per cent between 15 and 45 years, and 19 per cent were over 45 years of age.

Female accounted for 55 per cent of the total consultations, according to the report. Nine per cent complained of diarrhoea, 24 per cent had respiratory tract infections, four per cent had skin problems, five per cent had undiagnosed fever, two per cent had bloody diarrhoea and 45 per cent of the total patients had more than one disease.