Doctors have called for urgent measures to cope with the increasing number of malaria cases in different parts of Karachi and interior Sindh. This would include the eradication of mosquitoes causing vivax as well as falciparum malaria among the masses.
Keeping in mind the surge in the number of patients with serious conditions brought in to the teaching hospitals, the medical professionals urged for a refresher program for general physicians in towns as well as remote areas to ensure timely and effective treatment of the patients.
Professor Ayesha Mehnaz, Head of Unit Three of Paediatrics Department Civil Hospital, Karachi told APP here on Friday that children, mainly up to five years of age, are reaching the hospital with falciparum causing cerebral as well as severe malaria. Fifty percent of the cases they are presently receiving are of falciparum malaria.
The senior paediatrician said there were also considerable associated mortality despite the fact that standard treatment, Quinine Hydrochloride, recommended for such cases is not expensive. Mortality among the children suffering from malaria was said to be more common among those visiting from interior parts of Sindh, mainly from districts bordering Balochistan.
"We were helpless as they died soon after their arrival to CHK reflecting that they perhaps were not provided with treatment before being referred to CHK," the paediatrician said.