LAHORE: The leading medical experts of the city say that patients with multiple complications are visiting public and private hospitals of the provincial capital and rest of Punjab.

These days, they say, the vector-borne diseases, including malaria and dengue, are dominating other illnesses in Punjab.

The patients of typhoid are also increasing with visible signs of outbreak of the disease, the medical practitioners say.

They say Lahore has been witnessing for the last three weeks or so outbreak of infectious disease (typhoid), making the doctors and physicians too difficult to properly diagnose and treat the patients for the above-mentioned each disease.

Identical symptoms make diagnosis somewhat difficult

The medical experts say the state-run and private hospitals are facing an enormous burden of patients with identical symptoms and the doctors need to be careful while making diagnoses for proper treatment.

University of Health Sciences Vice Chancellor Prof Javed Akram says the vector-borne diseases are illnesses that are transmitted by vectors, which include mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas.

Talking to Dawn, he says the number of dengue and malaria patients are more than the Covid and typhoid cases in the provincial capital.

The patients with respiratory tract are also visiting the hospitals and private clinics, he says, adding that the reason is a change in weather.

“Earlier, we were experiencing peak season of Covid-19,” he says, adding that the outbreak of multiple diseases has led to an increase in the number of patients in Lahore and other parts of the province.

“It is not easy for a doctor to diagnose the disease when they interact with patients suffering from multiple diseases having identical symptoms, including temperature, cough and flu. We must have a system to collect separate data of such patients to analyse the real burden of the disease,” Prof Javed Akram says.

Senior medical physician at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital Dr Mohammad Arshad says the hospital is reporting a large number of patients with history of temperature, cough, sore throat and flu.

He says the record shows malaria and typhoid patients have outnumbered those visiting with history of dengue and Covid.

To a question, Dr Arshad says apparently Covid cases are on the decline.

A family physician running a clinic in Shadbagh, Dr Amir Ali, says he has attended 17 patients with symptoms of high temperature, cough and flu during the last two days. Of them, eight were diagnosed with typhoid and other contracted dengue and malaria.Meanwhile, the official figures released here on Tuesday claimed nearly 50 per cent decrease in dengue cases in Punjab.

The data shows 44 people tested positive for the virus during the last 24 hours across the province, taking the total number to 1,126.

Of them, 12 patients were reported from Lahore, 18 from Rawalpindi, four from Attock, three from Vehari, one case each from Sheikhupura, Faisalabad, Chakwal, Jhang, Multan, Khanewal and Okara.

According to the figures, presently 88 dengue patients are under treatment in public and private hospitals of Punjab. Of them, 51 are getting treatment in hospitals of Lahore and others in public and private hospitals of various districts.

The Punjab health department says 217,165 indoor and 47,058 outdoor locations were checked across Punjab during the last 24 hours to trace larvae.

About Covid, the data says 687 new cases were reported across the province during the same period, taking the total number to 429,082.

Similarly, the Covid death toll reached 12,556 after six more patients succumbed to the virus during the last 24 hours in Punjab. The corona cases are also on a gradual decline across the province.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2021