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Three bird flu patients admitted to PIMS
MUHAMMAD BILAL & ZIA M KHAN
ISLAMABAD (April 19 2006): The first ever case of bird flu in human beings appeared in Pakistan as three patients with the apparent symptoms of deadly Avian Influenza were admitted to a hospital here on Tuesday, sources said.
The victims identified as 22-year-old Sayed Wali, his sister Haleema, eight, and another woman Khadija, 44, were brought to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
All three hails from Sihala village near Islamabad where the government confirmed H5N1 strain in birds on Sunday, sources told Business Recorder.
The administration of the hospital has, however, very tactfully attempted to camouflage the incident by keeping these patients in one of the medical wards rather than treating them at the isolation ward meant for such cases.
The incident took place a day after federal Health Minister Nasir Khan ruled out the possibility of bird-to-human transmission of the virus.
It came two months after Pakistan first confirmed the presence of H5N1 virus in birds and seven months after World Health Organisation (WHO) warning that the bird flu with the intensity of killing up to 150 million people could hit South and Southeast Asia.
The government and its agencies - health and food ministries - have so far been telling people not to give up eating cooked chickens and eggs in a desperate attempt to save Rs 70 billion per annum poultry industry. After receiving a call from a source informing the incident, when these correspondents approached PIMS high ups for confirmation they denied any such case.
Health Minister Nasir Khan and PIMS Executive Director Dr Fazl-e-Hadi did not bother to receive telephone calls from these correspondents. PIMS Spokesperson Dr Wasim Khwaja when approached on telephone neither confirmed nor denied the case with a view that it was a sensitive matter and he could not comment on it.
When insisted, he referred these correspondents to his deputy Dr Ghulam Akbar, who at that time was on duty at the hospital.
When he was approached at his office, he refused to say even a single word about the incident.
"Look! I don't want to talk about it. We have strict directives from our administration not to disclose anything to media," he repeated this sentence in reply to many queries by these scribes.
Before that when the isolation ward was visited, doctor on the duty Abdullah denied he had received any patient from Sihala area with the Avian Influenza symptoms.
Everything appeared to be normal at the isolation ward and there didn't look to be an emergency or alarm situation.
Dr Abdullah said if any patient of bird flu came to the hospital, he or she would be treated at this ward and at the moment there was no such case.
When these correspondents went to the Medical-B Ward, the signs of suspicion appeared. First, when asked to identify the attendants of bird flu patients, the staff nurse at the duty unconsciously said, "They were here just now."
But later when she came to know the gentlemen she was talking to were from media, the nurse sought an excuse and kept a mum thereon.
She, however, didn't let these scribes to visit a corridor that was blocked by keeping a notice board in the way and said it was a prohibited area. Some other attendants with the patients in the ward confirmed that an isolation ward was established in four rooms and patients were shifted from there on late Tuesday evening.
Experts believe the government's position that the chickens and eggs were still a safe food was not right and the people should stop taking them immediately.
http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=411996&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=
MUHAMMAD BILAL & ZIA M KHAN
ISLAMABAD (April 19 2006): The first ever case of bird flu in human beings appeared in Pakistan as three patients with the apparent symptoms of deadly Avian Influenza were admitted to a hospital here on Tuesday, sources said.
The victims identified as 22-year-old Sayed Wali, his sister Haleema, eight, and another woman Khadija, 44, were brought to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
All three hails from Sihala village near Islamabad where the government confirmed H5N1 strain in birds on Sunday, sources told Business Recorder.
The administration of the hospital has, however, very tactfully attempted to camouflage the incident by keeping these patients in one of the medical wards rather than treating them at the isolation ward meant for such cases.
The incident took place a day after federal Health Minister Nasir Khan ruled out the possibility of bird-to-human transmission of the virus.
It came two months after Pakistan first confirmed the presence of H5N1 virus in birds and seven months after World Health Organisation (WHO) warning that the bird flu with the intensity of killing up to 150 million people could hit South and Southeast Asia.
The government and its agencies - health and food ministries - have so far been telling people not to give up eating cooked chickens and eggs in a desperate attempt to save Rs 70 billion per annum poultry industry. After receiving a call from a source informing the incident, when these correspondents approached PIMS high ups for confirmation they denied any such case.
Health Minister Nasir Khan and PIMS Executive Director Dr Fazl-e-Hadi did not bother to receive telephone calls from these correspondents. PIMS Spokesperson Dr Wasim Khwaja when approached on telephone neither confirmed nor denied the case with a view that it was a sensitive matter and he could not comment on it.
When insisted, he referred these correspondents to his deputy Dr Ghulam Akbar, who at that time was on duty at the hospital.
When he was approached at his office, he refused to say even a single word about the incident.
"Look! I don't want to talk about it. We have strict directives from our administration not to disclose anything to media," he repeated this sentence in reply to many queries by these scribes.
Before that when the isolation ward was visited, doctor on the duty Abdullah denied he had received any patient from Sihala area with the Avian Influenza symptoms.
Everything appeared to be normal at the isolation ward and there didn't look to be an emergency or alarm situation.
Dr Abdullah said if any patient of bird flu came to the hospital, he or she would be treated at this ward and at the moment there was no such case.
When these correspondents went to the Medical-B Ward, the signs of suspicion appeared. First, when asked to identify the attendants of bird flu patients, the staff nurse at the duty unconsciously said, "They were here just now."
But later when she came to know the gentlemen she was talking to were from media, the nurse sought an excuse and kept a mum thereon.
She, however, didn't let these scribes to visit a corridor that was blocked by keeping a notice board in the way and said it was a prohibited area. Some other attendants with the patients in the ward confirmed that an isolation ward was established in four rooms and patients were shifted from there on late Tuesday evening.
Experts believe the government's position that the chickens and eggs were still a safe food was not right and the people should stop taking them immediately.
http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=411996&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=