Lack of resources at PIMS: Attendants compelled to transport Congo fever patient’s blood sample manually to NIH

ISLAMABAD: In a shocking development, the healthcare staff at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) compelled the attendants of a young man suffering from Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) to ‘manually’ transport his blood sample to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad for testing.

The NIH later confirmed that the patient was infected with the CCHF virus, officials from NIH and PIMS reported on Tuesday. “Attendants of the patient suffering from Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) were asked to manually take the sample of the patient to NIH for testing. They used public transport to carry the sample to NIH, risking the spread of the deadly virus,” an official of the NIH told The News. Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral infectious disease. According to the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its samples should be transported with utmost care as per Biosafety Level 3 protocols.

Preliminary investigation revealed that a 22-year-old man from the Essa Khel area of Mianwali, who contracted CCHF while working at a cattle farm, went to Tehsil Headquarter Hospital (THQ) from where he was referred to District Headquarter Hospital, Mianwali. However, they also did not accommodate him and asked him to go to Islamabad or Rawalpindi. “We went to Mega Hospital in Rawalpindi, but they also refused to admit the patient and asked us to go to PIMS Islamabad. At PIMS, they shifted our patient to the medical ward and handed us his sample to take it manually to NIH for testing,” Tahir, a cousin of the patient, told The News.

Following confirmation from NIH that the young man was infected with the CCHF virus, the PIMS Infectious Diseases Department shifted the patient to an isolation ward while four of his close contacts were also shifted to the same ward. The Executive Director (ED) of PIMS, Dr Rana Imran Sikandar, conceded that the attendants of the patient were given the sample for transporting to NIH, but he blamed it on the lack of adequate staff and resources at the capital’s largest public health facility. “We are facing a shortage of over 1,250 healthcare workers and staff, including over 150 faculty members. We don’t have sufficient staff to shift the patients to the wards or transport their samples to the laboratories within the health facility or outside the hospital,” Dr Imran Sikandar added.

He said over 73 percent of the budget of PIMS is consumed on salaries, leaving very little for spending on healthcare services. He added that they hardly get Rs100 million annually for medicines, buying x-ray films, laboratory reagents, and other consumables.

“So in the absence of required manpower, material, and technical resources, how can we provide health services of international standards? But we are trying our best to serve hundreds of people who daily visit our emergency, OPDs, and wards, and save precious lives with limited resources,” Dr. Sikandar maintained. When approached, the head of the Infectious Diseases Department at PIMS, Dr. Nasim Akhtar, said that the condition of the patient was stable. “We have started antiviral drugs for the patient and to the close contacts of the patient as prophylaxis. We expect a better outcome,” she added.