Health professionals express serious concern over rising Covid-19 re-infections in Pakistan
Dec 13, 2020
Karachi [Pakistan], December 13 : Health professionals in Pakistan have raised serious concerns over the growing incidents of Covid-19 re-infections at various health facilities in the country, where several patients have been reported having coronavirus for a second time with severe illness.
Earlier perceived as a rare phenomenon, a rising number of coronavirus re-infection cases have started ringing alarm bells among health professionals in major cities of the country, reported The News on Sunday.
However, policymakers and planners are not worried about the situation, claiming that the Covid-19 re-infection was still something that was not fully established and cannot be considered as a threat as of now.
Officials at renowned hospitals including the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) and the Indus Hospital Karachi are fully convinced that people are getting re-infected with coronavirus and reporting to the hospitals with the severity of the disease for the second time.
"This is true [re-infection with SARS-CoV-2]. We are seeing a number of re-infections. Putting it together in a paper, trying to finish it but keep finding new cases," Dr Faisal Mahmood, senior infectious diseases expert and physician at the AKUH, told The News on Saturday.
Meanwhile, another senior physician Professor Sohail Akhtar said that several cases of re-infection had come to his knowledge in Karachi.
"One of our senior cardiologist friends is having re-infection and he is undergoing treatment due to severe symptoms. It is still not a widespread phenomenon but the cause of concern is that it is happening and people should keep it in mind that they can get re-infected if they stop taking precautionary measures," said Akhtar.
When asked about prevention and treatment of Covid-19, DUHS senior physician Dr Tahir Hussain regretted that the centres treating the virus in Karachi and other cities of Pakistan were not giving due importance to vitamin D and its preventive and therapeutic role in dealing with the coronavirus.
"Studies all around the world have proven that if your vitamin D level is less than 20, you are four times more likely to have a very serious disease and die from COVID-19," he said.
According to the latest update by Johns Hopkins University, Pakistan currently has a total of 438,425 infections, along with 8,796 deaths.
