Dengue cases among children have grown so fast at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka that two or three children are being treated in a single bed, Ittefaq found on a visit to the children's wards on Tuesday afternoon.
Dr Farzana Afroz, associate professor and the hospital's focal person for dengue, said its three children's wards have 20 beds each, 60 in all. Thirty are set aside for dengue, but more than 70 dengue patients are admitted. Because measles patients are still being treated, no separate dengue ward can be opened. With a parent beside each child, up to six people share one bed, which she called a horrible situation. She said that, following the new treatment guideline, no adult or child had died of dengue at the hospital.
Senior staff nurses on the ward said they are short of nurses; on night shifts it takes three or four people to fit a cannula in one child. A mother from Bhedarganj in Shariatpur said her 22-month-old daughter had a high fever and swollen legs. A second-grade pupil sharing the bed had had a fever since Friday and tested positive for dengue on arrival.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services, six people died of dengue in the 24 hours to 8am on Tuesday and 1,942 were newly admitted to hospitals across the country. This year's death toll rose to 239 and total cases to 77,672. Sunday's 2,158 cases were the year's highest for a single day; Monday recorded 2,036.
Dr Afroz advised keeping the surroundings clean so that Aedes mosquitoes cannot breed, putting children to sleep under a mosquito net and dressing them in full sleeves. Parents need not panic at a fever alone: a child with no vomiting or other danger signs can be cared for at home, but mothers should check that the child passes urine at least six times in 24 hours. She recommended oral saline, green coconut water, fruit juice and soup during the fever.
The report was filed by Ittefaq's Morsheda Yasmin Piu.
Source: Ittefaq
Comments
(0)