ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: The Disaster Management Committee of the Ministry of Health was told here Thursday that 1.8 million doses of anti-tetanus serum (ATS) were being procured through Unicef and will be available by next Thursday.
In addition, 200,000 doses of ATS, vital to reduce the risk of contracting diseases by a patient having widespread injuries, have arrived with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO) and would be stocked in the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan and Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood told reporters here on Thursday that 42 patients with tetanus infection had been admitted to different hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad of which 11 were in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims). Four of them are children.
Availability of 8,000 doses of Anti-Tetanus Globulin (ATG), used for saving lives of patients with tetanus, has been ensured while another 20,000 doses were being arranged on emergency basis from India.
The committee was informed that Dr Gulraiz Khawaja, a plastic surgeon at Pims, through a unique procedure of using close suction method in which a repaired leg was closed off with foam, had saved limbs of numerous patients that would otherwise had been amputated.
Lauding the achievement of the plastic surgeon, Nasir Khan said, on the first day of the disaster, the surgeon had saved limbs of six patients from amputation and had ever since saved many from permanent disability resulting from amputation of a limb.
Meanwhile, Anwar Mehmood said a field hospital similar to that established in Muzaffarabad with necessary facilities will start functioning in Rawalakot from Friday.
Likewise there is a fresh need of blood, he said, and appealed to the people to donate blood in large number so that it could be screened and dispatched to different base camps immediately.
He also requested foreign teams who rushed to participate in the relief work in the quake-devastated areas and are now leaving Pakistan, not to take back their mobile hospitals along with them.
WHO has donated a 50-feet container for Bagh, district of Azad Kashmir, for storage of medicines and other necessary equipment.
Similarly a Kuwait-based organization has committed to set up in Muzaffarabad a 10,000 square feet pre-fabricated container containing hospital beds, blood banks, operation theatres and other necessary facilities.
Nasir Khan has also talked to the railway minister for the provision of special bogies in all express trains for transportation of patients to hospitals in Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, etc, from Chaklala railway station.
About 7,000 to 14,000 beds would be made available to the health ministry to shift patients arriving in large numbers at the Chaklala Airbase from the affected areas.
The committee decided to stock all international donations of medicines and equipment being received at the Chaklala Airbase in the NIH. In case more space is required the health division will hire space in ware houses around Islamabad.
It was told that the ministry was maintaining a proper record alongwith photographs of orphan/unattended children and single women having no attendant in the hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. All photographs are being uploaded on the website of the health ministry and Pims.
Parents and relatives of unattended orphan children and single women patients have started coming to Pims to receive their loved ones. After due verifications and maintaining proper record, the children are handed over to their parents.
A field hospital at Alai (AJK) is also being set up besides Aga Khan Foundation in collaboration with the Save the Children Fund is running a tentage health facility. The health department of the NWFP and the army is also taking care of medical services in this area.
AKU: The Aga Khan University has sent its third medical team to the earthquake-affected areas.
An announcement here on Thursday said that the team will be working in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health in some of the worst-hit areas where health services have been destroyed due to the quake.
“After a disaster of this magnitude, the danger of epidemics greatly increases”, remarked Dr Gregory Pappas, Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health Science, AKU.
It was further pointed out that the six-member AKU team headed by Dr Zafar Fatmi, Assistant Professor CIIS, is in Islamabad and after undergoing training by WHO they would be dispatched to different disaster areas to collect data and control outbreaks of infectious diseases.
The data collected by this team will help in identifying the key medical risk factors and will be instrumental in assisting the government to coordinate the relief effort and plan the rebuilding.
A specialized trauma team consisting of experts from surgery, anaesthesia, orthopaedics and medicines had arrived Islamabad on October 11 along with medicines and surgical supplies of 1.5 tons.