After the outbreak of the deadly dengue virus, the cases of which have reduced with the drop of temperature, the Sindh Health Department is getting ready to face the possible outbreak of influenza or seasonal flu.
The Health Department has formed a cell to monitor cases of influenza and upper respiratory tract infection. The department issued a notification on Friday directing medical superintendents of state-run hospitals, medical directors of healthcare institutions and general practitioners to take samples from patients and send them to the surveillance laboratory at the Civil Hospital Karachi for conducting influenza tests.
“These influenza tests would be conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Health, Islamabad and will be 100 percent free-of-charge,” it was stated in the notification.
The Health Department directed through the notification that the sample may be collected from throat or nasal swabs and nasopharyngeal aspirates and tracheal aspirate or broncho-alveolar lavage fluid from intubated patients should be place immediately in the viral transport medium (VTM) and sent to the laboratory.
“Sample for virus isolation collected in VTM can be taken to laboratory within four days, kept at 4C and frozen at -70C if stored. In the absence of freezers or VTM, ethanol preserved swabs are a possible alternative. Storage of such specimens at 4C (in a standard refrigerator) is better than at room temperature,” the Health Department said.
Influenza- like illness, a term used by sentinel clinics for ambulatory patients and is defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) as a sudden onset of fever over 38C, cough or sore throat, in the absence of other diagnoses, would be considered as positive cases of influenza.
However, severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) would be the cases issued by sentinel hospitals for hospitalised patients. The definition for SARI is adapted from the WHO protocol on rapid response that recognises it as a sudden onset of fever over 38C, cough or sore throat and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing in children under five.
In the notification, the Health Department nominated Dr M Shakeel Aamir Mullick as the focal person for Influenza. He was also the focal person for dengue cell and was accused of providing inaccurate data of dengue case in Sindh.
He only focused on the dengue cases surfacing in Karachi and did not acquire data from other districts of the province.
In around 17 districts of southern Sindh, more than nine million people were uprooted in August this year due to devastating rains and floods and are still unable to return to their native places, forced to live under the open sky facing the risk of influenza and acute reparatory infection.
However, the appointment of a controversial person like Dr Mullick as the focal person for the disease means the actual number of patients would not be in the official record.
The Health Department has mentioned inaccurate or outdated cell-phone numbers of in Civil Hospital Karachi OPD In-charge Dr Noor Jehan Baloch in the notification as when she was called up, the person who responded said that the number does not belong to the doctor.
The additional secretary of the department, Dr Suresh Kumar, told Pakistan Today that influenza situation in Sindh is not alarming, but the move to direct the authorities concerned to refer the cases they find is a precautionary step.
