‘10 coronavirus patients being treated at DUHS Ojha campus’

As many as 10 patients infected with coronavirus are under treatment at the isolation ward of the Ojha campus of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), of whom four are on life support and they are being treated as per international protocols and guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“Several patients who were brought to the DUHS health facility for the treatment of COVID-19 have recovered, while unfortunately two of the infected people expired who had other illnesses and were of old age. We at Dow University of Health Sciences have acquired more real-time PCR machines and testing kits, and now our ability to test coronavirus would be increased upto 1000 tests per day," said the vice-chancellor of the DUHS, Prof Mohammad Saeed Quraishy, said on Thursday.

Talking to newsmen at his office online and on the phone, he said they had acquired more real-time PCR machines and testing kits, increasing their testing capacity to 1,000 per day, while "a free telemedicine clinic is also being launched in Dow Hospital on Friday tomorrow for general patients”.

Prof Quraishy maintained that the Dow Lab earlier had the capacity to conduct 300 corona tests daily at the Ojha campus, which had now been increased to 1000 tests per day. “We have conducted hundreds of tests for the diagnosis of coronavirus so far, and of them, nine percent were positive," he said and added that the process of screening in the province was being intensified.

According to the vice chancellor, there are 14 isolation beds at the Ojha hospital of the Dow varsity, and at the moment there are 10 coronavirus patients under treatment at the health facility, of whom four are on life support through ventilators.

As far as the recovery of patients is concerned, so far only two deaths have occurred at the health facility, he said, adding that one of patient who expired had problems of cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes.

“Like the rest of the world, we at the Ojha hospital are treating the coronavirus patients with a combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin, which are yielding positive results," Prof Quraishy said and added:

“However, we have a research team working on this treatment, monitoring patients around the clock and thoroughly analysing the effects of this combination." “We will give feedback on treatment of coronavirus through this combination after the completion of this research. These medicines have some side-effects like other drugs. We are conducting ECGs, give the medicine and then evaluate the functioning of the heart as it has direct effects on the heart," he said but advised people not to take these medicines on their own as they could prove fatal for them.

“Self-medication of these drugs is extremely dangerous and needs to be strictly avoided," he added. Prof Quraishy said that due to the cornavirus emergency, OPDs at the Ojha health facility had been closed, and that was causing problems for patients with common diseases.

“A free online clinic is being started at the Dow University Hospital where our specialist doctors will perform duties from 6am to 2pm for six days. The free telemedicine clinic will serve six hours from Monday to Saturday. Patients from gynae, medicine, surgery and psychiatry will be able to get free consultations and prescriptions from the specialists,” he said, adding that soon a helpline would be announced to help people to avail the facility of telemedicine.