PESHAWAR: The World Health Organisation has expressed concerns over the flawed treatment of people, who died of dengue fever, as the vector-borne ailment claimed another life in Peshawar bringing death toll to 68.

“The WHO mission reviewed record of 21 people, who died of dengue fever, and found that half of them passed away due to excessive intake of fluids,” sources at one of the Peshawar hospitals said.

They said that the patients, who should have been given Dextron 40, were administered normal saline infusion in access that caused their deaths. The two-member mission of WHO from Bangkok during its stay from October 25 to October 29 visited the hospitals and organised training for doctors on case management of dengue fever at the local hotel but only a few turned up.

Two-member mission says intake of fluids caused death of people

Sources said that health department took exception to the doctors’ unwillingness to attend the training for which the mission had arrived from Bangkok. “The health secretary is issuing a letter to the medical teaching institutions regarding inability of their doctors to participate in the training,” they added.

Sources said that arrival of the WHO’s experts was a blessing to impart training on case management to senior physicians, who could have acted as master trainers in future. They said that only one associate professor of medicine and a pathologist attended a training session for about an hour and then left.

Sources said that dengue fever was endemic in Bangkok and Thailand but mortality was less than one per cent owing to the best management skill of the doctors. “Our doctors were too busy to attend the training,” they added.

A junior doctor at Khyber Teaching Hospital who attended the training told Dawn that it was a useful session where WHO’s experts dwelt at length regarding management of dengue patients on their arrival at the hospital, within the next 24 and 28 hours and after five and 10 days.

He said that senior professors not only gave lectures but issued guidelines on case management but the senior physicians, who headed the departments at the respective wards where patients were brought, stayed away from the training.

Officials at health department told Dawn that they had started work on short, mid and long term plan to cope with the vector-borne ailment.

They said that larva had been found in localities near the main bus stand and houses in Tehkal, Pawaka, Sarband, Danishabad etc in Peshawar. They said that the larva still existed and posed threats to people.

The WHO has been urging the government to take vector control measures and eliminate larva inside the houses so as to stay free from the mosquito-borne ailments for now as well as next year. There is desperate need of the services of entomologists to disturb the life-cycle of mosquitoes, otherwise the people have to face the disease next year with more veracity.

Meanwhile, health department will give presentation to chief secretary on Monday to inform him of the latest situation with regard to dengue fever, according to officials.

The department has planned to run campaigns against the disease in Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera and Buner on the pattern of Peshawar. Officials said that the province recorded for the first time more dengue cases due to which there were some anomalies that could be corrected through training of staff and putting into practice the guidelines of the WHO.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2017