Majority of hospitals lack swine flu arrangements

ISLAMABAD – The doctors of leading hospitals of the twin cities and various districts have said that the majority of hospitals lacked basic facilities for keeping and treating the Swine Flu (H1N1) affected patients.
They expressed these views at a workshop held to train the Health Care Providers as Master Trainers in Epidemology, surveillance and clinical management of Influenza (H1N1) cases.
Ministry of Health and World Health Organization (WHO) had jointly organised the training workshop here at the National Institute of Health (NIH). The workshop was part of the series of the workshops being organised by MoH and WHO for training the healthcare providers as master trainers and further impart training to the to the health staff in their respective areas. They urged the authorities concerned to look into the matter and facilitate the hospitals for proper arrangement for treating H1N1 patients.
Speaking on the occasion, National Programme Manager Influenza, Dr Zaka gave a presentation on the introduction, situation update and Epidemology of the disease. He informed that MoH, WHO and NIH, had jointly developed a ‘National guidelines of Influenza A/H1N1 Pandemic for Health Care Providers’. He said that the objective of the guidelines for surveillance, response and management was that these should be used as a reference for all those involved in prevention and control of the disease with an aim to guide and apprise health care workers about the differences amongst the common influenza and Influenza A (H1N1).