Low influx of patients with serious infections being reported in the region

Rawalpindi : The three teaching hospitals in town have been receiving significantly low influx of patients with serious infections for the last one month though the cases of child patients with upper and lower respiratory tract infections including pneumonia are still being reported.

Overall a healthy season is prevailing in this region of the country and the number of cases of both the vector-borne infections and water and food borne infections are on the decline. Only little patients of infections are being reported at the allied hospitals these days, said Head of Department of Infectious Diseases at Rawalpindi Medical University Professor Dr. Muhammad Mujeeb Khan while talking to ‘The News’ on Thursday.

He, like many other health experts however believe that to avoid serious infections in the coming days, individuals have to follow certain healthy habits including good hygiene, cleanliness and preventive measures against infections endemic in the region. We should opt for preventive medicine that is vaccination to avoid certain infections as a future policy, he added.

For infections whose vaccine is not available, people must follow precautionary measures to avoid them, he said. He added at present, there has not been any significant burden of patients with certain infections like dengue fever or diarrhoea at the DID in Holy Family Hospital however these infections may hit population after rise in temperature and humidity.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Thursday has revealed that Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital have not been receiving significant number of patients with serious infections at its OPD instead majority of patients reaching hospitals are with complaints of mild to moderate infections.

It is worth mentioning here that nearly 40 per cent burden of disease in Pakistan constitutes communicable infections including tuberculosis, measles, pneumonia, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, malaria, gastrointestinal infections, viral hepatitis, and dengue fever and like threats.

There is a need to make public aware of the fact that the number of cases of communicable diseases can be avoided and controlled if proper preventive measures are taken at the time, said Dr. Mujeeb. The most important thing is to educate public that healthy life style and good dietary habits can safeguard individuals from a number of serious health threats including respiratory tract infections and gastrointestinal diseases, he said.

He said individuals can reduce the chances of spread of a number of infections to a significant extent only by adopting cleanliness and keeping their living environment clean both at home and workplace.

Individuals should wash hands with soap before eating and after going to toilet and should consume clean drinking water to avoid certain infections. The best practice is to use boiled water for drinking, said Dr. Mujeeb.

Another good habit is to use plenty of fruits and vegetables and the leftover food should be stored properly in refrigerator. Individuals should wash vegetables and fruits with clean water before eating. To avoid malaria and dengue fever like infections, unnecessary accumulation of water and moisture at homes and offices must be avoided as these may provide breeding places to mosquitoes, he said.