Additional quantity of life saving drugs arranged . Increase in dengue cases also feared, official says . Over 100 patients being reported on daily basis in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: While over 100 dengue patients are surfacing on a daily basis in the federal capital for the last three days, health authorities in the city fear that cases might increase further if the proscribed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) staged a sit-in.

On the other hand, hospitals in the capital have been put on high alert in anticipation of a clash between the TLP activists and law enforcement personnel.

Meanwhile, Islamabad reported 118 dengue cases and the garrison city recorded 68 on Saturday.

According to a document of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), in view of the protest the hospital will remain on high alert.

Pims Deputy Executive Director Dr Zulfiqar Ghouri has directed heads of all departments to make necessary arrangements.

Moreover, the departments of general surgery, neuro surgery, orthopaedics, emergency and accident centre and oral and maxillofacial surgery have also been asked to ensure availability of maximum strength.

Talking to Dawn, Pims media coordinator Dr Waseem Khawaja saidit was a standard operating procedure (SOP) to put the hospital on high alert on such occasions.

“Additional quantity of life saving drugs has been provided in the emergency department and pharmacy to ensure availability of medicines in case of any untoward incident,” he said.

“It has been decided that over a dozen beds will remain vacant all the time. The blood bank has been instructed to ensure availability of blood. At least 20 bags of O negative blood will be available because in case of an emergency it becomes difficult to arrange O negative blood,” Dr Khawaja added.

On the other hand, an official of the Ministry of National Health Services, requesting not to be named, said there were also chances of dengue cases rising in case the protesters staged a sit-in.

“Dengue mosquito bites at sunrise and sunset. Participants of the sit-in will remain in the open and as majority do not use mosquito repellents, they will become easy targets of the insect,” he said.

Meanwhile, District Health Officer (DHO) Islamabad Dr Zaeem Zia told Dawn that out of the total cases reported on Saturday, 79 came from the rural areas and 39 from urban localities.

Twenty-six cases were admitted to Pims, 12 were under treatment in Holy Family Hospital 11 in Federal General Hospital, six in Benazir Bhutto Hospital, one in Polyclinic while the remaining were in private hospitals.

He said 28 cases were reported from Tarlai, 16 from Koral, 10 each from Tarnol, Alipur, six from Bhara Kahu and one from Sihala.

The tally of cases in the capital had risen to 2,721, with 1668 patients arriving from the rural areas and 1,053 were residents of urban localities.

During the last 24 hours, 485 houses indoor residual spray and 351 fogging activities were conducted in different areas to eliminate the potential breeding sites of larva.

The DHO said teams from the District Health Office also found 1,008 potential breeding sites of larva and eliminated them.

During the last 24 hours, the teams visited 2,514 houses and found dengue mosquito larvae in 10 residences.

In the garrison city, on the other hand, 68 dengue patients landed in the three government hospitals, increasing the tally of confirmed patients to 2,032.

As many as seven patients were in critical condition.

There are now 82 patients in the Holy Family Hospital, 14 in Benazir Bhutto Hospital and 47 in the DHQ Hospital.

A total of 1,941 dengue patients have been discharged from hospitals till now, with 80 patients recovering in the last 24 hours.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2021