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| Swine flu outbreak in NWFP ruled out |
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Friday, November 20, 2009
Bureau report
PESHAWAR: The NWFP Health Department has ruled out outbreak of the Swine flu (H1N1) virus in the province and said it had made all preparations to handle any possible epidemic.
Addressing a one-day capacity building workshop on clinical management of A/H1N1 virus for healthcare providers at Provincial Health Services Academy, NWFP Health Services Director General Dr Fazal Muhammad said all of the five patients detected in the country had been infected abroad and there was no evidence of the circulation of the said virus in Pakistan.
The workshop was jointly organised by the Provincial Health Department, National Institute of Health Islamabad and World Health Organisation (WHO). Health Experts from various districts of the province attended the workshop.
Dr Fazal Muhammad said the department had plenty of standard medicine provided by the WHO for the treatment of such patients. Elaborating preparatory efforts, he said a task force had been formed on the issue, while a separate ward was also allocated for such patients at Hayatabad Medical Complex.
He added that a team of health experts had been deputed at Peshawar International Airport, while a fixed point was also established at Pak-Afghan border for timely detection of any possible case of the A/H1N1 virus.
Dr Fazl underlined the need for capacity building of healthcare providers to detect and manage its treatment properly. He advised healthcare providers to know about the guidelines established by the WHO and use personal protective equipment, including gown, gloves, goggles and mask, to avoid spread of the virus.
Dr Najeeb Durrani, the WHO national surveillance officer, while hinting at the epidemiological features of the global pandemic, said the newly detected virus A/H1N1 had a novel and unique combination of Swine, avian and human genes and had never been seen before.
The expert said that the rapidly human-to-human transmitted virus was causing morbidity and mortality in 182 countries of the world. “Children, pregnant women and persons with a history of chronic diseases are more vulnerable to the disease,” he added.
He said the disease had no gender discrimination and across the globe 6,768 deaths had been reported. He said though most infections occurred in the northern hemisphere, the spread of the virus could cause severe effects in the southern hemisphere due socioeconomic conditions of the region.
He said symptoms of the disease included fever, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore thread, runny nose and sometime vomiting and diarrhea as well.
Dr Mukhtar Zaman, Head of Pulmonology Department at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, said the incubation period of the virus was two to three days, which sometimes expand up to seven days and chances of its spread were seven to 13 per cent while one to 10 per cent cases needed hospitalisation.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
