KARACHI: Dr Mohammad Sarwar, a former professor of surgery at Civil Hospital Karachi, died of complications caused by Covid-19 on Tuesday.

He was heading the examination department of the Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry.

So far, 48 doctors have died of the disease in Sindh. Of them, 28 were based in Karachi.

“Dr Sarwar apparently recovered from Covid-19 and was discharged from the hospital. Soon after, he suffered a heart attack and [was] re-admitted and later died,” Dr Qaisar Sajjad of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) told Dawn.

According to him, there have been many cases in which a Covid-19 patient was discharged from the hospital following ‘recovery’ but soon reported with some serious illness and died.

“The disease affects major organs of the body including kidneys, heart, brain and lungs. Hence, it’s extremely important that good care is ensured in the post-recovery period,” he said.

Admitting lapses on behalf of doctors in implementing infection control measures, he said he personally had seen doctors wearing gloves engaged in all kinds of professional and non-professional work.

“They suffer from a false sense of security. If you don’t know how to use gloves, don’t think that you have minimised the risk of infection,” he said.

According to the data compiled by PMA, 10 doctors, all based in Karachi, have died of coronavirus this month in Sindh.

They are: Dr Tajammul Husain, Dr Shahab Yameen, Dr Shamsuddin Bhatti, Dr Waris Poonjani, Dr Rizwan Rasheed, Dr Yousuf Panja, Dr Tahir Amin Chaudhry, Dr Waseemuddin and Dr Abdul Sattar Korai.

A total of 154 healthcare providers have lost their lives to coronavirus this year in the country.

Of them, 27 were paramedics. The most recent victim was 32-year-old Fahmida Ali, a nurse at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Khairpur.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2020