KARACHI, Nov 23: The Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre has decided to make payments to its registered dengue patients against transfusion of platelets, said Dr Mashoor Alam, executive director of the hospital, on Thursday.

He said that in line with a recent announcement made by Federal Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan, the administration had already started process for payment of platelet charges to dengue patients admitted for treatment during the past couple of months at the JPMC.

Speaking at a press conference, the federal health minister about two weeks back had said that government would bear the cost of platelet transfusion for patients of VHF/dengue done at federal government hospitals. He had also pledged to refund the amount what the patients had already paid to blood banks for procurement of platelet packs after completing formalities.

Dr Alam said that as soon as the inventories were prepared in consultation with the hospital wards and blood banks, the federal government would be approached for allocation of funds for reimbursement. He said he hoped that the process would be finalised shortly.

Talking about the blood-cell separator service at the JPMC, the director said efforts were under way for the procurement of a better machine and technical staff needed for making it operational and maintenance of the facility.

At present patients at the JPMC have to pay Rs7,000 to Rs8,000 to blood banks for one mega platelet pack.

In the meantime, another 40 new patients were rushed to various city hospitals in the government and private sectors. A maximum of 15 new patients suspected to be suffering from VHF or dengue fever were admitted to the Liaquat National Hospital.

Dr Tajammul Baig of the Dengue Fever Cell of the Sindh Health Department said that the overall number of patients afflicted with mosquito-borne diseases, who were admitted to hospitals during the past five months or so, had reached 4,048 in Karachi and 4,151 in the province.

Of the 1,429 patients confirmed as dengue-positive cases, 1,381 were admitted to city hospitals. During the past 24 hours ending at 2pm on Thursday, a total of 202 patients were still admitted at 14 hospitals.

The patients’ position at different city hospitals on Thursday was as follows: LNH 33 (15 new patients), CHK 10 (no new), ZUH-30 (6), JPMC 18 (10), BTH 6 (3), NICH-9 (no new), ASH 44 (no new), BH 6 (3), Kutiyana Memon Hospital 5 (2), and Lyari General Hospital 1 (1).

An Aga Khan University Hospital press release said that as many as 29 patients were at present hospitalised with suspect viral haemorrhagic fever. So far, a total of 710 patients with ages ranging from 6 to 82 had been admitted to the hospital since June 14, out of which 15 patients had died due to severity of the disease, while 666 recovered and were discharged.