Influx of dengue fever patients drops down at PIMS

Islamabad :The influx of confirmed patients of dengue fever reaching Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences for management has reduced to a significant extent after the fall in temperature though the hospital is still receiving 60 to 70 patients of the infection per day on average.Earlier the PIMS was receiving 200 to 400 confirmed patients of dengue fever per day on average particularly in September and till the third week of October but now the number has reduced to 60 to 70 per day, said Deputy Director at PIMS Dr. Waseem Ahmed Khawaja while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.Giving details, he said from August 1 to October 31 this year, as many as 25691 patients reached PIMS with fever in outpatient department of medicine and in emergency of which 8094 patients were found to be confirmed patients of dengue fever while 17597 patients were tested negative for the infection.He added that most of the patients reaching PIMS were tested positive for dengue fever from different private diagnostic laboratories operating in the federal capital. The PIMS arranged additional staff including doctors, nurses and paramedics in its emergency department for management of dengue fever patients, he said.Dr. Khawaja said the staff at the PIMS has been continuously informing patients that there is no need to be afraid of dengue fever explaining them that only less than one per cent of patients need admission to hospital. The PIMS treated majority of patients on OPD basis, he said.He added that people should follow preventive measures strictly to avoid dengue fever particularly at the time when the temperature has started falling and mosquitoes may move to warmer places inside homes and offices. If proper preventive measures are not followed, there may be a surge again in number of patients, he said.It is important to mention here that there may be chances of increase in incidences of dengue fever due to mass movement of participants of ‘Azadi’ March who are now staying in open in the federal capital in the form of ‘dharna’. Many experts have already expressed to ‘The News’ that the participants in case of having infection may infect local mosquitoes causing spread of malaria and dengue fever.When asked, Dr. Khawaja said the PIMS has already developed a separate reporting system to record data of patients reaching hospital from the ‘Azadi’ field. The separate recording of patients from ‘dharna’ would help assessing the trend of infections among participants of the March, he said.

from The News International - Islamabad https://ift.tt/2pD79x8