"In 2002 SARS emerged in Southern China and spread to 30 countries. In 2009 H1N1 influenza strain emerged in Mexico and caused worldwide panic. In 2012 MERS emerged in Saudi Arabia spread to 27 countries. In 2014 Ebola virus broke out in three West African countries.
Today the whole world appears to be in the grip of new deadly disease 'Coronavirus', emerged from china and speedily spreading all over the world and becoming a worldwide pandemic causing more than 24,000 confirmed cases and approximately 490 deaths in China. It has spread to 25 countries of the world," said Dr Sara Salman, Head of sub office Sindh, World Health Organisation (WHO).
She was addressing the audience on an interactive seminar "CORONAVIRUS: world under deadly threat?" organised by Ziauddin University to raise awareness about this contiguous disease. While discussing the origin and symptoms of coronavirus she said, "A novel coronavirus was identified as the source of the illnesses on January 7, with the infection traced to Wuhan seafood market that also sold live animals. It has very common symptoms just like normal flu including fever, difficult breathing, impaired liver, kidney function, kidney failure, severe cough, pneumonia and unknown incubation period."
On the role of WHO in Pakistan, she further stated that we have taken major safety initiatives to control this virus by installing health information desks at airports to keep check and balance on passengers, especially on international arrival. Isolation wards have been setup at public and private hospitals in Sindh. Notifications, dissemination of all guidelines and SOPs have been circulated all over government and private hospitals and institutions.
While talking about viral infectious diseases including influenza and coronavirus, Dr Nida Hussain, Pro-Chancellor, Ziauddin University, said, "We all are very well aware of corona, it's all over the world as WHO also declared emergency but thankfully we haven't received any case in Pakistan yet, just a common flu is one of the main symptoms, currently H1N1 has a higher mortality rate than coronavirus.
It is very much present in our communities and hospitals because of the expensive test people don't even bother to go to the hospitals and get them checked. We need to create awareness about it. People are more likely to get infected by such kind of viral infections including pregnant women, children under the age of 2, people with heart and neurological conditions, anybody with a weak immune systems and kidney problems."
While giving references of previous deadly viruses Dr Samreen Sarfaraz, Consultant Infectious Disease, Indus Hospital disclosed, "MERS Co-V had 2494 cases, 858 deaths and 37 percent mortality rate. SARS Co-V had 8098 cases, 774 deaths, and 10 percent mortality rate whereas, currently we are facing fatal Coronavirus with 24,530 confirmed cases, 493 deaths and 2-3 percent mortality rate.
It is basically person-to-person spread among close contacts via respiratory droplets. Touching a surface that has the virus on it and then touching own mouth, nose, or eyes can easily make you a coronavirus patient."
Speaking at the seminar about preventions of coronavirus she notified, "We have to take certain steps as precautionary measures including development of a plan of action, drill on dealing with a suspected case, the location of a place where a potential patient can be isolated, know whom to contact at the state or local health department if you have a patient with the appropriate travel history. We should provide training to all hospital staff about proper wearing of special mask during the check-up of coronavirus or any other flu patient."
While providing the awareness about high risk exposure of coronavirus, Dr Syed Ahmed Raza Kazmi, Director Clinical (Governance & Training), Sindh Health Care Commission, said, "A person living in the same household, a person having had face-to-face contact or having been in a closed environment, a healthcare worker or other person providing direct care, or laboratory workers handling coronavirus patient.
A contact in an aircraft sitting within two seats (in any direction) of the 2019-nCoV case, travel companions or persons providing care, and crew members serving in the section of the aircraft where the index case was seated have high number of risk to get infected by this virus."
Dr Muhammad Osama Rehman Khalid, Consultant Infectious Diseases, Dr Ziauddin Hospital said that in Pakistan we haven't yet received any coronavirus case and we pray not to receive any because there is no vaccine for this deadly virus. Corona, influenza, swine flu all are viral infectious disease it is very difficult to catch the exact virus.
We cannot easily differentiate them because symptoms are almost same for all these like 100 plus temperature, body pain, runny nose, severe cough etc. Doctors and hospital staff should be very careful while treating the patients of infectious disease; they should put on a mask, wear gloves, use goggles and adopt other safety measures before entering the room where such patients are kept because prevention is always better than the cure.
Comments
Comments are closed.