Quarantine arrangements at Karachi airport termed inadequate
December 04, 2014
Karachi
A team of Sindh health officials on Wednesday inspected quarantine arrangements for Ebola patients at the Jinnah International Airport Karachi and declared them to be inadequate.
Federal and provincial health authorities, besides international health agencies, have sprung into action since the arrival of the first suspected Ebola patient in the country via the Jinnah International Airport.
A middle-aged businessman had arrived from Liberia on Monday with a spiking fever. He was checked at the airport from where he was shifted to an isolation ward at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
According to a Dr Anwaar, a federal health official deployed at the Karachi airport, a team of Sindh health officials visited the airport on Wednesday and inspected quarantine arrangements, including the facility set up by the federal government. He said the team of experts decided that any suspected Ebola patient could not be held in quarantine at the airport due to lack of required facilities.
Anwaar said the team also visited other health facilities in the city and found a dormant cardiac hospital situated in Shah Faisal Colony — a secondary-level health facility established by the defunct City District Government Karachi which never started began working — to be an “ideal” place for keeping suspects Ebola patients who arrived via the Karachi airport.
“The cardiac hospital is very close to the airport and the health department’s assessment team found it to be an ideal place for keeping suspected Ebola patients since the facility is fully equipped and is currently inactive,” he claimed. “The assessment team is also considering other health facilities for keeping suspected Ebola patients arriving in Karachi from West-African states. But a final decision will only be taken after all the health facilities in the city have been inspected.”
The team of experts from the Sindh health department began the survey on Wednesday after a meeting of the Ebola Steering Committee a day before on Tuesday to chalk out a strategy for dealing with the a potential Ebola outbreak.
Dr Khalid Shaikh, additional health secretary Sindh, confirmed that the health department was looking for a third venue in Karachi for preparing “proper” isolation wards for suspected Ebola patients.
In this regard, he said, the Ojha campus of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) was also being considered.
“We are going to talk to the DUHS vice chancellor and hope that we will be able to set up five isolation rooms at its Ojha campus,” Shaikh revealed.
Suspected patient
On the other hand, the suspected Ebola patient quarantined at Jinnah hospital is said to be in “good shape”, according to doctors, epidemiologists and experts who examined him on Wednesday.
The joint executive director of JPMC, Dr Seemin Jamali, said the patient was in good health and did not show any symptoms of any haemorrhagic viral infection.
However, he would have to stay quarantined till the test results came back.
Meanwhile, a team of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad and World Health Organisation had sent the patient’s blood sample abroad for diagnosis. The test results haven’t come back yet.
A team of Sindh health officials on Wednesday inspected quarantine arrangements for Ebola patients at the Jinnah International Airport Karachi and declared them to be inadequate.
Federal and provincial health authorities, besides international health agencies, have sprung into action since the arrival of the first suspected Ebola patient in the country via the Jinnah International Airport.
A middle-aged businessman had arrived from Liberia on Monday with a spiking fever. He was checked at the airport from where he was shifted to an isolation ward at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
According to a Dr Anwaar, a federal health official deployed at the Karachi airport, a team of Sindh health officials visited the airport on Wednesday and inspected quarantine arrangements, including the facility set up by the federal government. He said the team of experts decided that any suspected Ebola patient could not be held in quarantine at the airport due to lack of required facilities.
Anwaar said the team also visited other health facilities in the city and found a dormant cardiac hospital situated in Shah Faisal Colony — a secondary-level health facility established by the defunct City District Government Karachi which never started began working — to be an “ideal” place for keeping suspects Ebola patients who arrived via the Karachi airport.
“The cardiac hospital is very close to the airport and the health department’s assessment team found it to be an ideal place for keeping suspected Ebola patients since the facility is fully equipped and is currently inactive,” he claimed. “The assessment team is also considering other health facilities for keeping suspected Ebola patients arriving in Karachi from West-African states. But a final decision will only be taken after all the health facilities in the city have been inspected.”
The team of experts from the Sindh health department began the survey on Wednesday after a meeting of the Ebola Steering Committee a day before on Tuesday to chalk out a strategy for dealing with the a potential Ebola outbreak.
Dr Khalid Shaikh, additional health secretary Sindh, confirmed that the health department was looking for a third venue in Karachi for preparing “proper” isolation wards for suspected Ebola patients.
In this regard, he said, the Ojha campus of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) was also being considered.
“We are going to talk to the DUHS vice chancellor and hope that we will be able to set up five isolation rooms at its Ojha campus,” Shaikh revealed.
Suspected patient
On the other hand, the suspected Ebola patient quarantined at Jinnah hospital is said to be in “good shape”, according to doctors, epidemiologists and experts who examined him on Wednesday.
The joint executive director of JPMC, Dr Seemin Jamali, said the patient was in good health and did not show any symptoms of any haemorrhagic viral infection.
However, he would have to stay quarantined till the test results came back.
Meanwhile, a team of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad and World Health Organisation had sent the patient’s blood sample abroad for diagnosis. The test results haven’t come back yet.
