PIMS receives over 4,000 confirmed dengue patients

Islamabad: Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) that has been providing treatment to majority of dengue fever patients on outpatient department (OPD) basis has so far received well over 4,000 confirmed cases of dengue fever of which nearly 3,500 have been tested positive at PIMS.

According to a PIMS spokesman, Dr. Waseem Ahmed Khawaja, PIMS has been receiving dengue fever patients from different areas including Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Jhelum, Gujar Khan, AJ&K and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Most of dengue fever patients are given treatment on OPD basis though as many as 80 patients were admitted to the hospital on Monday for management, he said.

In last 48 hours, over 30 patients have been transfused platelets and blood while of the admitted patients, seven were suffering from dengue fever complications, said Dr. Khawaja. He added that PIMS has deputed extra staff in emergency and medical OPD for management of dengue fever patients while a special counter for screening of dengue fever patients has also been setup at the Accident and Emergency Department of the hospital. Additional beds have been arranged in PIMS emergency and four different wards including medical wards 5, 6, 1.and Surgical Ward 4, he said.

Dr. Khawaja added that so far dengue fever claimed no life at PIMS that has received a total of over 6000 suspected patients of dengue fever of which over 3500 tested positive at PIMS while more than 500 were confirmed positive by private laboratories operating in town.

He added that currently majority of patients are being reported from sectors G-7 and G-9. For the last one week, PIMS has been receiving nearly 400 dengue fever suspects daily on average of which 200 to 250 are being tested positive, said Dr. Khawaja.