The summer months are upon us. The rain, the standing water and the breeds of mosquito. Same routine is going to follow. Like a clockwork. The malaria and possible dengue outbreak then cases of the hemorrhagic fever and then the flu. As emergency physician we see this never ending cycle and hope one day with our team work we may be able to break this cycle and have less people getting exposed to these infections.
Our effort should be to break this cycle by all means. We have large number of patients dying from malaria in Pakistan and we have stopped making it even a small news let alone the headlines. Since the incidence of dengue infections have decreased the fear about it has also minimized. No news seems to be a good news for people and to our healthcare leaders.
There are plenty of other summertime smaller infections and physicians should be aware of them, but the malaria and dengue and the other hemorrhagic fevers should be dealt with more vigil and resolve. This months we will see how we can deal with it with the help of the local government to solve our issues. These steps can be summarized as:
- Mosquito breeding site.
- Environmental improvement.
- Improving veterinary Care.
- Better educated physicians.
As a nation we should also measure the impact of disease to the family as well as the society in terms of lost hours(productivity) and lost money (Revenue). It will be an eye opener for every one if we collect the lost hours and lost revenues due to preventable infections and diseases. That ultimately translates into productivity and improved general health of the nation.
I am hopeful that with the training in preventable diseases and also emergency medicine we will be able to deal with this issue. That will ultimately result in improvement of the general health of the nation and will decrease the economic burden caused by the sickness.
I can be reached at erdoc@shifa.com.pk