The cold wave gripping the city for the past 10 days has severely affected people of all ages, causing a spike in patients number at healthcare facilities, it emerged on Saturday.
Experts said the most vulnerable among the patients were small children who could develop pneumonia and measles encephalitis as a complication if the illness is neglected.
Seasonal weather changes could exacerbate allergy symptoms. Thus it’s important that people should avoid allergy triggers including dust as this can prolong their illness.
Endorsing the rise in patients’ number, Dr Qaiser Sajjad, senior ear-nose-throat specialist, said he had been examining a high number of patients of all age groups reporting with co-infections.
“It seems viral but what I have found, in most cases, is that it’s a super-added bacterial infection. Therefore, I have to prescribe a course of antibiotics that provides immediate relief,” he shared.
Sources said the intense cold wave had compounded the miseries of poor patients reporting at government hospitals where healthcare providers suspend outpatient department services for two hours in protest in the morning, and senior doctors were not available.
Patients, they said, had to wait for a token in chilling weather for two hours.
The experts urged the health department to take notice of the situation, resolve the problems with the strikers and issue directives to the staffers to report on time.
