Awareness seminar held at Rawalpindi Medical College

Hospital staff being vaccinated against infection

Rawalpindi

The Department of Infectious Diseases at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) organised an awareness seminar at the Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC) on Thursday on preventive measures and treatment facilities for Influenza A H1N1, commonly known as swine flu.

RMC Principal and Allied Hospitals Chief Professor Dr. Muhammad Umar presided over the seminar which was attended by nearly 500 doctors, nurses and paramedics serving at the three teaching hospitals along with students of the RMC.

Department of Infectious Diseases In-charge Professor Dr. Muhammad Mujeeb Khan delivered a detailed technical lecture on various aspects of swine flu, while Clinical Management Team for Infectious Diseases Head Professor Dr. Khurram and Focal Person for Infectious Diseases at RMC Dr. Javed Hayat were among the panel of experts for the seminar.

Dr. Mujeeb informed the participants of the seminar that the outbreak of Influenza A H1N1 is not of much serious nature and there is no need to panic. Instead people as well as health workers should follow proper preventive measures to avoid all strains of flu. He said influenza virus A/H1N1pdm09 now circulates worldwide as one of the three seasonal flu viruses.

He said the allied hospitals are capable of treating the infection and sufficient quantity of anti-viral medicines is available at the three teaching hospitals to manage its complications, however, people should report to the healthcare facilities immediately in case of contracting the infection.

After technical lecture, a question and answer session was held in which experts explained various aspects of the infection to the participants.

RMC Principal Dr. Muhammad Umar said the recent outbreak of Influenza H1N1 is of mild nature and RMC administration has already taken necessary measures to deal with patients of the infection. “We have a well-equipped infection diseases ward and isolation standards to keep and manage swine flu patients.”

A total of three persons died of the infection at the HFH during the recent outbreak of Influenza A H1N1 though it was found that the patients died of the infection reached HFH after developing severe complications. The patients were tested positive for swine flu, Influenza H1N1, after their death.

Talking to ‘The News’, Dr. Javed Hayat said that the RMC administration has already started vaccinating hospital staff against flu to avoid spread of the infection.

He explained that the patients who died of Influenza A H1N1 were taken to the hospital in critical condition with serious complications like pneumonia and they could not survive mainly because of delay in reporting.