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Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090626/jsp/calcutta/story_11160779.jsp
Gender bender in flu ward
- Man with fever joins isolated girl with virus and her mother
A STAFF REPORTER
The male isolation ward of the Infectious Diseases Hospital that changed gender depending on the occupant was transformed into a unisex quarantine unit on Thursday with a swine-flu patient, a swine-flu suspect, and an occupant without a trace of the virus.
A 48-year-old man who landed from Bangkok with cough and fever joined the seven-year-old NRI girl who has tested positive for swine flu and her mother (who had tested negative) in the Beleghata ward, their beds partitioned only by a curtain.
Prem Chand Yadav, who had arrived at the airport on an Air India Express flight in the afternoon, was quarantined on being found to be running a temperature. Yadav is from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, but has been a resident of Bangkok since 1991.
The hospital authorities said they had no choice but to put him in the same ward as Shruti Ghosh and her mother Sonali. ?We have created a partition so that the woman and her daughter are not inconvenienced,? said an official.
Shruti and Sonali, residents of Oman, were brought in on Tuesday after they arrived from a trip to Australia.
?The child is being given Tamiflu syrup and that treatment will continue. Her condition is stable and she is no longer running a temperature. Her condition will be assessed after five days and then a decision on her release will be taken,? said Tapas Sen, the nodal officer for swine flu in Bengal.
Sonali, who has also been put on a course of Tamiflu to prevent infection, complained of ?inhuman conditions? after two nights at the hospital.
?Rats and roaches are running around. The bedsheet is dirty and the toilet is unusable, with sewer water streaming down a pipe,? she told Metro in the afternoon.
Aniruddha Kar, the director-general of health services, said relatives of patients should lodge ?official complaints? if they found the facilities inadequate. ?We can then take steps to address their inconvenience,? he added.
Late in the evening, Shruti?s father Saugata said the authorities were ?trying to make things better? by installing a water purifier. The other change in the hospital is that the doctors, nurses and group D staff have started wearing masks and gloves before entering the ward.
Metro has been highlighting the sordid state of the hospital and the lack of basic quarantine facilities since last month.
Top
Gender bender in flu ward
- Man with fever joins isolated girl with virus and her mother
A STAFF REPORTER
The male isolation ward of the Infectious Diseases Hospital that changed gender depending on the occupant was transformed into a unisex quarantine unit on Thursday with a swine-flu patient, a swine-flu suspect, and an occupant without a trace of the virus.
A 48-year-old man who landed from Bangkok with cough and fever joined the seven-year-old NRI girl who has tested positive for swine flu and her mother (who had tested negative) in the Beleghata ward, their beds partitioned only by a curtain.
Prem Chand Yadav, who had arrived at the airport on an Air India Express flight in the afternoon, was quarantined on being found to be running a temperature. Yadav is from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, but has been a resident of Bangkok since 1991.
The hospital authorities said they had no choice but to put him in the same ward as Shruti Ghosh and her mother Sonali. ?We have created a partition so that the woman and her daughter are not inconvenienced,? said an official.
Shruti and Sonali, residents of Oman, were brought in on Tuesday after they arrived from a trip to Australia.
?The child is being given Tamiflu syrup and that treatment will continue. Her condition is stable and she is no longer running a temperature. Her condition will be assessed after five days and then a decision on her release will be taken,? said Tapas Sen, the nodal officer for swine flu in Bengal.
Sonali, who has also been put on a course of Tamiflu to prevent infection, complained of ?inhuman conditions? after two nights at the hospital.
?Rats and roaches are running around. The bedsheet is dirty and the toilet is unusable, with sewer water streaming down a pipe,? she told Metro in the afternoon.
Aniruddha Kar, the director-general of health services, said relatives of patients should lodge ?official complaints? if they found the facilities inadequate. ?We can then take steps to address their inconvenience,? he added.
Late in the evening, Shruti?s father Saugata said the authorities were ?trying to make things better? by installing a water purifier. The other change in the hospital is that the doctors, nurses and group D staff have started wearing masks and gloves before entering the ward.
Metro has been highlighting the sordid state of the hospital and the lack of basic quarantine facilities since last month.
Top