KARACHI:An official report on Thursday revealed that out of 192 children admitted to district and taluka hospitals of Tharparkar, five born premature with low weight died.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has started receiving such daily reports of medical services, death reports and relief work from Deputy Commissioner Tharparkar.
It may be noted that the Sindh government has declared Tharparkar as drought-stricken district where relief activities have been started to mitigate drought effects in the area.
The report sent by DC Tharparkar Asif Jameel says that 553 children between one to five years of age were treated in Out-Patient Services (OPD) in the district and taluka hospitals of Tharparkar. On 15 January, 58 children were brought to the hospitals in precarious condition, where the treatment of 76 admitted children was in progress. In this way, a total of 192 children admitted to hospitals are under treatment.
According to the report, out of 192 in-door patients, 21 have been discharged from the hospitals when their condition stabilized. Four children, born with low weight and suffering from different birth complications, were brought to Emergency of Civil Hospital Mithi in gasping condition from different areas of Tharparkar district on different dates, but they could not survive despite hectic efforts of pediatricians.
The Medical Superintendent Civil Hospital Mithi reported facts for each expiry as under:
A baby boy, son of Shaukat Sahar, resident of village Hamirabah, was born in a private clinic of Taluka Kaloi with a weight of 3.7 kg. He was admitted on January 13, 2019 with birth asphyxia complaint. Necessary treatment was given as per protocol, but the child could not survive and expired on January 15.
A baby boy, son of Nando Meghwar, resident of Islamkot, was born in RHC Islamkot, weighting one kg. He was admitted on January 11 with complications of pre-term, very low birth, and had respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Necessary treatment as per procedure was given to the newborn, but he didn’t respond to the treatment and expired on January 15.
Tanisha, daughter of Harish Meghwar, aged 12 days, was born in Islamkot town with a weight of 1.4 kg, a very low weight. She was admitted on January 14 with neonatal sepsis problems. Necessary treatment was given as per protocol but the child expired on January 15. Chanda, daughter of Ramoon Thakur, aged 19 days, was born at home in village Dabhi, Taluka Diplo, weight 1.2 kg, a very low weight. She was admitted on January 14 due to neonatal sepsis. Necessary treatment was given as per protocol but the child expired on January 15.
The Medical Superintendent Taluka Hospital Chachro has reported facts for expiry of a child at his hospital is as under:
Parsan, aged two months, son of Aachar Bheel, resident of village Keetar, taluka Dahli, was born at home having weight of 3.5 kg. He was admitted on January 15 after suffering from severe pneumonia/fever and fits. Necessary treatment was given to the child as per protocol but he expired on Jay16.
The deputy commissioner in his report to CM Sindh said that 690 children were also treated on Thursday in OPD of 31 BHUs and 18 government dispensaries operating under the administrative control of PPHI.
Awareness campaign: On the instructions of the Sindh chief minister, the Population Welfare Department of Tharparkar district has set up special camps for awareness, tubal ligation and Jadelle contraceptive procedures in 12 villages and held awareness and family planning sessions with 174 clients.
The chief minister has directed Population Welfare Department to create awareness among the villagers of District Tharpar about mother and child health for which birth spacing was very important.
Relief work: The report says that free wheat relief activities are in progress across the district. Today, 5890 families were provided wheat under Phase-III. Moreover, 57 families of Phase-II were given 50 kg wheat bags. It says 10 left over families (who had not collected wheat bags) of Phase-I also approached their respective sentinel points and collected wheat bags. The 247,209 families in Phase-I, 252,081 in Phase-II and 93,440 in Phase-III have received wheat bags at the scale of 50 kg.
The distribution of family ration bags (FRB) amongst the pregnant and lactating women (PLW) was also in progress. The second phase of such distribution amongst the PLW at their doorstep has been started for which Health Department and PPHI have registered PLW through an extensive survey. Till Jan 17, some 65,314 bags have been distributed in Phase-II and 36,656 stand already distributed in Phase-I.
Livestock: The Livestock Department has set up veterinary camps in 10 villages of different talukas. Of them, one camp has been set up at Mithi, one each in Diplo, Dahli and Nagarparkar, four in Islamkot and two in Taluka Chachro. At the camps, 20 animals were treated and 8568 vaccinated whereas 339 were also drenched, the report concludes.