Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Thursday confirmed that a foreign return Pakistani citizen has been admitted in the hospital with symptoms of swine flu.
Joint Executive Director PIMS Dr Jehanzib Aurakzai talking to APP said that a citizen was admitted at hospital over suspicion of swine flu when he arrived here from Sharjah Wednesday night where he was confirmed to have been affected with swine flu.
"His treatment has been started after receiving tests from National Institute of Health and he has been allocated separate place in the Medical Ward-II to protect others from having such virus." Patient Syed Abdul Qadir Hussain, 25 years of age, a resident of Kohat was working in Dubai as driver and arrived here from Sharjah at Benazir International Airport on Wednesday night.
Dr. Jehanzib said that the patient is being treated in separate room under strict barrier-nursing and only designated medical and para-medical staff are looking after the patient while non-essential staff and attendants are not allowed to enter the room.
He said all secretions of the patient and hospital clothing in use of patient are being treated as infectious and are being autoclaved before incinerating.
He however said that the patient is not in serious condition and added that his condition is so far under control.
When asked about precautionary steps from the hospital administration he replied patients who are suffering from such contagious infections are often nursed in isolation using a procedure known as barrier nursing.
He added these techniques have developed to protect the hospital environment from contamination with dangerous pathogens and anything that comes into direct contact with the patient is considered infectious.
He added personnel attending the infectious patient wear special protective clothing, masks and gloves.
He said the symptoms of swine flu are similar to most influenza infections like fever, cough, nasal secretions, fatigue, and headache, with fatigue.
He added some patients also get nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea while some patients develop severe respiratory symptoms and need respiratory support such as a ventilator to breathe. Patients can get pneumonia if the viral infection persists, and some can develop seizures, he said.
The main way that influenza viruses are thought to spread is from person to person in respiratory droplets of coughs and sneezes. This can happen when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person are propelled through the air and deposited on the mouth or nose of people nearby. Influenza viruses may also be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets on another person or an object and then touches their own mouth or nose or someone elses mouth or nose before washing their hands.