KARACHI: Against the backdrop of the fast-spreading novel coronavirus, which has reached 22 countries, experts said on Friday that there was an immediate need at the federal and provincial level to upgrade the health infrastructure and prepare for any emergency situation.

They also questioned how the Sindh health department demanding evacuation of “trapped students in Wuhan” would respond if a need emerged to keep some of them — who had a history of either travelling to the virus-hit city or came in contact with any infected patients in any other country — under observation as there was not a single proper quarantine facility in the whole province.

By Friday morning, according to media reports, the flu-like virus had killed at least 213 people, all of them in China. Almost 9,900 people are infected there, with about 130 cases in 22 other countries.

Student returned from China in isolation ward

“It’s unfortunate that there is no proper quarantine facility in the entire province and the one student, who has just returned from Wuhan, is being looked after in an isolation ward of a private health facility,” said Dr Qaiser Sajjad of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA).

A student that recently returned from China is being kept at an isolation ward, instead of quarantine, of a private hospital

He added that the student should have been quarantined away from the city at the airport and that hospitals were not meant for this purpose.

The student Dr Sajjad was referring to had recently returned to Karachi after “being cleared of coronavirus by Chinese authorities”, according to a health department spokesperson.

While the department avoided sharing further details, the media reported that he was under observation at a private health facility.

“The health department of Sindh is in touch with him and will be monitoring him from time to time to make sure he has no symptoms of the virus,” shared the spokesperson on social media, but was unavailable to explain why he was not quarantined at a government facility and what the government would do if he developed symptoms.

According to Dr Sajjad, all over the world quarantine is set up by governments at their airports, entry points of a city and borders.

Explaining the function of a quarantine facility, Dr Sajjad said keeping people in quarantine gave doctors time to see whether people, who had travelled to a place of a disease outbreak had developed symptoms or test positive for the infection over the next two weeks (the incubation period of the virus).

“The facility is for people who may have been exposed to the virus and not know it or may have the virus but be showing no symptoms,” he said.

On the contrary, he said, an isolation ward was for patients who had fallen ill and were showing signs of the disease.

The hospital at Karachi airport labelled as quarantine did not meet the standards and required immediate upgrade, he added.

“Also, the government must [establish] a state-of-the-art virology laboratory. How could [you] fight an enemy if you are unable to indentify it,” he asked.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2020