KP takes notice of rising influenza-like illness cases

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Directorate finally came out of hibernation on Tuesday and took note of the months-long viral infection that has almost become an epidemic causing serious respiratory issues to thousands of people in the province and directed relevant authorities to increase in Covid19 testing in the public sector hospitals.

The directorate issued a notification. It said: “There has been a rise in cases of Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) within our nation in the preceding weeks’’, and in light of these developments, the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) has issued a directive, emphasising the need for all provinces and regions to enhance their endeavours in Covid-19 testing. 

“Considering the recent upswing in respiratory infections and the worldwide dissemination of the novel JN-I variant of Covid-19, and in concordance with the World Health Organisation’s concerns about the escalation in respiratory infections, there has been a noteworthy rise in cases of ILI within our nation in the preceding weeks. Additionally, neighbouring countries have documented occurrences of the aforementioned JN-I variant, underscoring the need for a proactive and vigilant approach,” the directorate explained in the notification.

“The goal is to meticulously monitor the real-time situation within our country and implement requisite measures to mitigate the potential spread of the virus. To guarantee the efficiency of our response, the undersigned kindly urges your prompt consideration of some measures including randomly screening ILI cases for Covid-19, facilitating the collection and submission of samples for genome testing to the Public Health Reference Laboratory,”it is stated in the health directorate notification.

The Health Directorate stressed the need for collaboration in prioritising the implementation of the above mentioned measures. “The timely and comprehensive implementation of these testing protocols will play a substantial role in our joint endeavours to manage and alleviate the impact of Covid-19,” it added.

According to clinicians and officials of the Health Directorate, there has been an outbreak of a serious type of infectious disease in the country and particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the past three months, but the relevant authorities did not take it seriously.

“We have been receiving patients with serious respiratory problems for the past two-three months and their symptoms are similar to the covid19, and interestingly majority of them received Covid19 vaccine,” said Dr Razaullah Khan, a pulmonologist at the Hayatabad Medical Complex in Peshawar. He called it “tripledemic” comprising influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus and Covid19 and it has already been reported in the United States in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The doctor said since the majority of the people had been vaccinated against coronavirus, therefore, they developed immunity in their bodies and that the tripledemic was not that much severe as it used to be in the past. He said it was something new that patients had received influenza vaccine but even then they got infected.

“One reason that people don’t prefer investigations is that the infectious disease isn’t that serious this time. But yes the number of patients suffering from infectious diseases is growing rapidly,” said Dr Razaullah Khan.

According to medical experts, the infectious disease has affected elderly people and particularly those having a history of respiratory difficulties.

The Health Directorate has, however, no data of the patients who have suffered from infectious disease. Also, it has no information about human losses caused by the viral infection so far.