ISLAMABAD: A document submitted to the National Assembly showed that not a single rupee was released to hospitals of the federal capital to treat the dengue patients.

The document was submitted to the house in reply to questions by MNA Shakila Luqman on whether Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) provided any fund to the government hospitals.

The lawmaker also asked if funds were allocated to hospitals for research work on the disease.

The document showed that both the Polyclinic and Pims did not get any additional fund to treat the dengue patients and had to utilise the already available funds for the purpose.

Pims spokesperson says the hospital should be allowed to hire support staff during the dengue season

Pims stated that funds were not provided for the research work and the Polyclinic said research work was beyond the scope of the hospital.

Pims spokesperson Dr Ayesha Isani told Dawn that funds should be provided to make the mechanism for testing samples easy.

Moreover, the hospital should be allowed to hire support staff during the dengue season.

She said there was no need to carry out research work because already a lot of research had been done on the dengue in different countries.

“However, we need funds for the treatment of patients. Moreover, funds are required to confirm the dengue virus as a special kit is used for it,” she said.

“Last year, 180 patients were confirmed with dengue. Whenever a suspected patient is admitted to the hospital, we send their samples to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for the confirmation. It takes almost four days to get the result of the test. So a large number of kits are required,” she said.

“This year, both Pims and Polyclinic have decided to purchase Elisa testing kits for dengue. The kits, worth Rs700 each, provide an accurate result about antibodies. In the market, laboratories are using the rapid dengue test kits which do not provide reliable results,” she said.

“Moreover, we also have deficiency of beds. Usually, 10 beds are allocated in the Medical Ward II and in case of influx of patients all 30 beds in the ward are allocated for the dengue patients,” she said.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2016