PESHAWAR: The health department has issued preventive and management guidelines to hospitals for severe acute respiratory illness, which has claimed four lives in Punjab.

The department has asked the medical teaching institutions and district headquarters hospitals to strictly monitor people with history of 10 days of fever and cough. It has made use of protective equipment for the staff of hospitals to control spread of the disease.

“No case of H1N1 has been reported after nine confirmed cases in Multan district of Punjab,” the health department has alerted its province-wide facilities in a letter. It said that seasonal flu was not reported in the province but strict measures should be taken to prevent it.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate General Health Services asked health personnel to use the WHO’s recommended ‘personal protective equipment’ (PPEs) to stay safe from the infection. It said that health workers, who risked coming in contact with patients, should get full protection.

Health dept says seasonal flu not reported in province but strict measures should be taken

As precaution, the directorate has ordered hospitals that any patient of ‘severe acute respiratory illness’ (SARI) with history of 100.40F associated with cough required hospitalisation while those suffering from ‘influenza like illness’ (ILI) in which person had acute respiratory infection with 10-day history of temperature or sore throat or undiagnosed cases with seven-day history of such symptoms should be taken into account as a measure.

The guidelines entitled “Public Health Influenza and Related Viruses”, ask the hospitals to adopt measures for prevention and control of seasonal influenza infections. The guidelines have been derived from documents developed by National Institute of Health Islamabad, World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control to prevent and control seasonal influenza infections through surveillance and establishment of dedicated wards at the hospitals.

The department will also train staff to further strengthen and improve the level of preparedness on preventive side, control and management influenza.

Dr Ayub Roz, the director general health, said that the staffers not complying with the guidelines would face strict disciplinary action because influenza was preventable and curable medical condition. “We have a network of facilities where high qualified doctors work,” he said.

He said that employees had been warned to strictly monitor the situation. He added that any suspected case should immediately be reported to the directorate general office to take prompt measures.

“We have drawn a plan to maintain line list of all cases with required credentials. The hospitals will send weekly reports on the basis of which action will take place,” said Dr Ayub.

The department has asked the hospitals to utilise the mechanism devised for management of dengue hemorrhagic fever and provide antiviral treatment, especially to high risk groups including elderly and young patients and people with chronic health problems like asthma, diabetes, cardiac and lung diseases, and pregnant women, who are at high risk for developing complications due to infection.

“Care-providers, who are at risk of contacts with suspected cases should be vaccinated against seasonal influenza,” said Dr Ayub. He said that the guidelines described vaccination and effective infection control best prevention strategies.

He said that healthcare facilities should adopt standard and droplet precautions and personnel should avoid touching mouth and nose, close contact with ill people and crowded settings. “People with fever and cough should wear a face mask,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2018