LAHORE: The Dengue Expert Advisory Group (DEAG) has exposed the “criminal negligence” on the part of the district and health authorities following the recent dengue outbreak in Rawalpindi city.

It has unveiled disturbing facts and levelled accusations regarding false/fictitious reporting about the actual number of dengue cases in the city and the supply of medicines about to expire for the treatment of the patients.

The DEAG is the only high-level credible body of Punjab which was formed after dengue gripped the province nine years ago.

“It was noted with huge amount of concern that daily hundreds of suspected dengue patients are being reported to the healthcare facilities of Rawalpindi and a considerable number of these are tested positive for dengue infection thereby falling in the category of confirmed dengue cases,” reads the report.

It alleged that the health authorities were showing meagre number of patients while concealing facts regarding enormous disease burden in the city. It raised another serious issue that very few number of lifesaving drug Dextran-40 fluid is left in the stock.

The drug is used in case of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF), the most advanced and dangerous stage of the dengue fever.

Dengue experts feared that the patients in an advanced stage of the disease hardly survive if not diagnosed and treated timely.

“The alternative Hetastarch 6% is also not readily available in hospitals’ pharmacies and in the market to save lives of the patients,” the report said.

Many other shocking facts including procurement of irrelevant drug that was not recommended for the DHF patients and presentation of small percentage of actual cases had been reported by the DEAG in its confidential report submitted to the Punjab chief minister.

The most worrying part of this report was the fact that 40% of the DHF patients were admitted to the hospitals of the Rawalpindi with a potential risk to their lives.

“Some of the hospitals have procured Hetastarch 3% solution for patients with DHF which is not recommended to be used in the treatment of dengue shock syndrome,” it said.

“A large number of the patients in the form of asymptomatic or mild infection are present in the community and they may contribute to the disease burden enormously in coming days,” the DEAG reported. All of the visited hospitals complained that there was shortage of human resource in the form of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff.

“In some hospitals, more than 50 percent of the posts were vacant for long,” the report pointed out.

About the diagnostic facilities, the DEAG reported that the facility of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and serotyping was not available to any government hospital of Rawalpindi. The PCR helps detect the presence of hepatitis C virus in the body and a person’s potential to transmit HCV to others.

“It was observed with serious concern that some of the hospitals were displaying old protocols of the DEAG creating greater chances of misdiagnosis and wrong treatment of the patients,” said the report.

The new protocols were provided them in the form of large charts to be displayed in their wards and high dependency units.

It stated that these new monitoring charts were designed in 2019 showing color coded, fluid management of critical phase, febrile and convalescent phase, pro forma for admission and discharge.

They were provided to the medical superintendents of the hospitals along with administrative focal person on the dengue to be disseminated throughout the hospital for usage and proper documentation of all dengue patients.

About enormous burden of the dengue disease in Rawalpindi, it reported that this city was in fact dealing with a large number of patients residing in Islamabad.

“The Sawaan area which is at the border of the district Rawalpindi has become the hotspot for the spread of the dengue disease. It was observed that a large number of patients of Islamabad were reporting to the health care facilities in Rawalpindi instead of Islamabad thereby overburdening the hospitals of the city in question,” according to the report.

The DEAG also documented a set of recommendations for the chief minister to avoid any mishap.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2019