close
Tuesday March 19, 2024

Probe into drug reaction incident ordered

By Our Correspondent
February 22, 2018

LAHORE : Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir on Wednesday took notice of the incident of reaction of D-worm medicine in children in Toba Tek Singh and directed an inquiry into the incident.

He also directed Additional Secretary Technical Dr Asim Altaf and Punjab Health DG Dr Akhtar Rasheed Malik to visit the village, Chak 996, to review the situation. Imran Nazir said that so far 1.1 million D-worming tablets had been given to the children but the reaction of the medicine had been recorded only in Toba Tek Singh. He said that it would be inquired whether the children were suffered due to the medicinal reaction or it was something else. He said that the samples had also been sent to the laboratory for analysis. He said that the children who were admitted to hospital were being looked after properly.

Meanwhile, Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Khawaja Imran Nazir visited Nankana District Headquarters Hospital and inspected the stalls set up in connection with the health week being observed across the province.

Kh Imran Nazir also visited emergency department of the hospital and the dialysis centre. On the occasion, patients praised Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for providing dialysis facility in the hospital.

They were of the view that before the establishment of dialysis centre in Nankana DHQ, they had to visit Faisalabad or other cities for the purpose. The minister was told that presently 20 dialysis machines were providing services to the kidney patients. The minister directed that the dialysis centre be run 24/7.

The also visited the hepatitis filter clinic and appreciated the performance of its administration. He directed the hospital administration to establish waiting area having all basic facilities for the patients and their attendants. He said that arrangements for drinking water and air-conditioning also be made keeping in view the change in weather.

HIV/AIDS: The Punjab AIDS Control Programme has tested over 3,000 people in Sargodha’s Kot Imrana village and adjoining villages to investigate the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, technical team informed Programme Director, PACP, Dr Asim Altaf in a meeting at the PACP office Birdwood Road here on Wednesday.

According to a handout issued here on Wednesday, the week-long camp was organised to ascertain the scale and extent of HIV prevalence in the area and the camp covered population in Kot Imrana, Bhabra, Bucha Kalan, Pindi Rawan and adjoining areas. The samples have been collected and submitted to Central Lab for PCR and other tests. The final report will be shared with the Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare.

The programme said PACP made coordination with Sargodha district team for local support. Deputy Commissioner, Sargodha, Liaqat Ali Chatha supervised the activity, providing complete support and facilitated the holding the camp at the identified site. “The area has been under the scanner for quite some time as data analysis pointed to the presence of a pocket here. We laid special emphasis here during Health Week and Hepatitis Weeks in the past few months. More recently, we set up camp in October in Bucha Kalan to further investigate the HIV/AIDS cases,” he said.

Dr Asim Altaf said, “We are conducting a situational analysis and track epidemiological pattern (if any) consistent with the transmission of the virus. A special investigation (epidemiological study) is also being conducted to investigate an evidence-based primary mode of transmission. Once the tests are confirmed, we will look into possibility of setting up a center in the nearest vicinity to facilitate the patients.”

Minister Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazir visited the area and supervised the camps there.