Congo virus patient admitted to JPMC general ward

Karachi

In an act of grave negligence that endangered the lives of doctors, paramedics and other patients, the administration of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) on Thursday admitted a Congo virus patient to the hospital's general ward. 

Wearing a common surgical mask, 16-year-old Shahid Khan from Karachi's Banaras area was lying on Bed No 8 in the hospital's Ward 7 on Thursday evening, despite confirmation of him being infected with Congo virus by lab reports from the Aga Khan University Hospital.

"The patient has been diagnosed with Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) but the medical faculty and doctors providing him treatment have kept him in the general ward," said JPMC Executive Director Dr Anisuddin Bhatti.

"On the recommendations of doctors, the patient could have been shifted to an isolation room in the hospital."

But unfortunately, no isolation ward or room have been so far established by the JPMC administration for keeping suspected and confirmed CCHF patients and, therefore, such patients are kept along with other patients since long.

A couple of weeks back, a CCHF patient, Allah Ditta, an animal trader from Bahawalpur, had also been kept at the general ward of the JPMC despite protests by the doctors and paramedical staff of the hospital and the patient later died due to complications of the deadly viral disease.

Congo virus is highly contagious and a lethal viral infection and international protocols of its treatment and management is to immediately isolate its suspected and confirmed patients because many doctors and paramedics have died in Pakistan and rest of the world after coming into contact with such patients.

“Even masks and gloves have not been provided by the administration to the nurses and paramedics, who are seeing this (Congo virus) patient. We are not going near to the patient and also advising his attendants to remain distanced from him”, said a nurse at the ward 7 of the JPMC requesting anonymity.

A couple of junior doctors who were treating the patient were wearing common surgical masks and gloves but they were not wearing protective gowns.

Talking to The News, they maintained that the patient should be admitted to an isolation ward with a separate washroom.

However, they deplored that despite their protest, the patient was being kept at the general ward.

Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Secretary General Dr Mirza Ali Azhar termed the presence of the Congo virus patient at the general ward as a criminal negligence and demanded the authorities to take strict action against the administration for violating the international protocols regarding treatment of the highly contagious and lethal disease.

“If a patient has been confirmed by the lab reports that he is infected with the Congo virus, the patient should be kept in isolation but unfortunately, there is no such isolation ward or room available at any public hospital, including the JPMC and the Civil Hospital Karachi, in the whole province”, Dr. Mirza deplored.

Renowned hematologist and a former official of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), Dr Saqib Ansari, said the Congo virus spread through the secretions of the patient.

“Even if the patient sneezes, the droplets carry the virus and can infect persons present nearby him or her.

“Such patients should be kept in complete isolation and medical staff visiting the patient should be in complete protective gear. We should learn from the death of Dr Sagheer of the Bahawal Victoria Hosptial, Bahawalpur, who contracted the disease from a patient and later died at a hospital in Karachi”, Dr Ansari said.

Young doctors and medical students at the JPMC were also very concerned about the “unprofessional attitude” of the JPMC administration, saying senior faculty and administrative officials, who never see a patient, posted junior doctors and paramedics to treat patients with the highly contagious disease and despite their protest, no precautionary measures were being taken by the JPMC administration.

“If this patient is not shifted to isolation ward or room tonight and special protective gears are not provided to doctors and paramedics, we would be compelled to lodge protest and leave the wards on Friday”, warned a young doctor and office-bearer of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) at the JPMC.