TELANGANA LOSES FIRST DOCTOR IN FIGHT ON COVID
A 50-year-old general practitioner from Khairatabad became the first doctor in the state to die of Covid-19 on Monday.
The doctor contracted the infection when visiting a patient, whose family doctor he was, in a private hospital in Kacheguda.
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The patient was scared and wanted his family doctor to ascertain that he was getting the right treatment. After visiting this patient the doctor developed a severe cough and fever and tested positive for Covid-19. The respiratory infection led to lung failure and though he was put on a ventilator, he died. The patient he had visited has recovered.
There are more than 100 doctors in TS who have contracted the virus, including Ayush doctors. The deputy director of Ayush and incharge principal of Government Nizamia Tibbi College has tested Covid positive and was admitted to a private hospital on Sunday night.
He fell ill a week ago and underwent home quarantine. His health deteriorated on Sunday evening and he was admitted to a private hospital.
The staff of Nizamia General Hospital and College is now very scared and insist that the rotational system of work must be put in place.
A senior member of the Ayush department told this newspaper: “Three professors who were primary contacts have been quarantined. Other faculty of college and hospital have been asked to report if there are symptoms. But that is not enough. Rotation system has to be immediately implemented or more staff and doctors will fall ill.”
The hospital has nonCovid patients who are not being treated and it also lacks protective gear for its staff. Dr Abdul Hasan Ashraf, senior member of the Government Nizamia Tibbi College and General Hospital Development Society, said, “We appeal to the government to provide proper personal protection equipment and other essential Covid-19 guidelines to Unani doctors. This is the only Unani institution in the entire state and nonCovid patients have nowhere to go. They are coming here for treatment and being sent back which is wrong. Those who seek Unani medicines for neurological disorders are worst hit and it is important that non-Covid facilities must also be given priority in these times.”