PESHAWAR: Due to the change in weather, the number of patients suffering from seasonal diseases has increased by 50 percent in the outpatient departments (OPDs) of the main teaching hospitals in Peshawar in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
According to data received from the three main hospitals of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa - Hayatabad Medical Complex, Khyber Teaching Hospital and Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), in contrast to the increase in patients, there is a shortage of required medicines.
While talking to The Express Tribune the dean of Khyber Institute of Child Health, Professor Dr Gohar Rehman said that due to the dry and cold weather, the spread of seasonal diseases like asthma, pneumonia, chest and throat infections have increased.
He explained that upper respiratory infections are viral infections which can affect anyone who comes into contact with the infected individual.
Dr Rehman said that 70 patients were admitted in the Medical A and Medical B wards of the hospital, while the number of children in the OPD had also doubled.
“Due to the shortage of medicines in the hospital and the market, patients are suffering because they have been compelled to purchase low quality medicines,” he said.
Dr Rehman suggested that all asthma patients should keep particularly warm in the cold hours of the night and early morning. He said that due to the carelessness of parents, many children were contracting pneumonia and advised everyone to wear warm clothes before leaving their homes.
INTERNEWS
