C T Online Desk: Hospitals in the capital city reported a rapid surge in the number of patients with cold-related diseases, a situation not reflected at all in the official account on winter illnesses prepared by the Directorate General of Health Services.
Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute in the capital’s Sher-e-Bnagla Nagar, the largest children hospital in Bangladesh, reported that 16 children with cold conditions, on average, were admitted to the hospital while 70 others were taking outpatient services at the 650-bed hospital daily.
The 2,600-bed Dhaka Medical College Hospital reported a 20 per cent rise in the daily number of patients with cold conditions as the hospital has been struggling to accommodate additional patients over the past few days. The DMCH has already run out of beds for patients now spilling onto corridors.
But the DGHS winter illness report does not say anything about this situation.
The DGHS’s Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room data show that 3,173 patients were admitted to hospitals across the country on January 5, but none was shown in Dhaka.
Shishu Hospital officials said that it admitted 15 patients suffering from cold-related diseases and provided outpatient services to 64 such patients.
In the first five days of January, the hospital admitted 73 children with cold conditions, including pneumonia, viral fever, breathing difficulties and diarrhoea.
Sumaiya Akhter, a resident of Natun Bazar in the capital’s Kalayanpur area, brought her three-year-old son Shamsuzzaman Khan to the health facility on Wednesday as the child had been suffering from breathing problem for the past three-four days.
‘On seeing the test report, the doctor said that it was pneumonia,’ she said.
Like her, several other mothers with children were seen waiting to consult a doctor on the ground floor of Shishu Hospital.
A number of mothers said that they took preventive measures as far they could but babies were still suffering from fever, runny nose and breathing problems.
DMCH director Nazmul Haque, without disclosing specific data, said on Friday that the number of cold-related patients had been increasing by more or less 20 per cent daily in both inpatient and outpatient departments.
‘We always have to serve more patients than our seat capacity allows. The additional patients with cold-related diseases have created an additional pressure on the hospital,’ he said.
He said that more than 3,500 patients were currently admitted to the 2,600-bed hospital.
Most of the cold-related patients visiting the hospital or being admitted to it were children and senior citizens.
Shishu Hospital’s epidemiology and research department head Professor Reaz Mobarak said that a significant number of the patients visiting doctors were with pneumonia while many others were with diarrhoea and viral fever.
‘We are also finding that a number of children are diagnosed with tuberculosis,’ he said.
Patients are also visiting doctors with typhoid, dengue and rotavirus, he further said.
Officials of the hospital said that 40 per cent of the total patients visiting the hospital were with cold conditions while pneumonia alone counted 25 per cent of the total deaths.
In December, hospital officials said, 433 patients with cold-induced diseases were admitted to the hospital, which was about 25 percent higher than in November.
DMCH and Shishu Hospital officials confirmed deaths from cold conditions but declined to disclose the numbers.
Mugda Medical College and Hospital director Niatuzzaman on Friday said that an increasing number of children were admitted to the health facility with pneumonia and older people with breathing problem.
‘I cannot remember the exact numbers, but we are getting increasing number of patients with cold-related diseases,’ he said.
Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital director Rashid Un Nabi on the day said that the overall number of patients admitted to the hospital in winter was below the average in the hospital.
‘We are getting cold-related patients, but the figure is not significantly high,’ he said.
But DGHS acting director general Ahmedul Kabir said the same day that he was not aware of this situation in these city hospitals, adding that there should not be any mismatch between the data from hospitals and the data of the DGHS system.
‘I will ask the MIS department to fix the issue,’ he said.
DGHS data showed that 3,64,654 people were admitted to hospitals across the country with cold-related diseases between November 14 and January 5, including 2,38,219 patients in Dhaka division. Durging the time, 77 people died of such diseases across the country while no death was reported from Dhaka division.
However, the divisional health office in Rangpur reported 218 cold-related deaths between November 15 and December 31 in the division’s eight districts.
Of the deaths reported by the Rangpur divisional health office, 53 were recorded in Rangpur district, followed by 36 in Kurigram, 31 in Dinajpur, 26 in Gaibandha, 22 in Panchagarh, 19 in Nilphamari, 17 in Lalmonirhat and 14 in Thakurgaon.
