Dialysis wards are latest source of COVID-19 spread

Dialysis wards are latest source of COVID-19 spread

Primary source for at least 40 patients in L.B. Nagar zone are the wards of two corporate hospitals in city

12/05/2020, SWATHI VADLAMUDI,HYDERABAD

Kidney patients need dialysis at regular intervals for blood purification, for which they need to visit hospitals even during COVID-19 lockdown. Representational photo

Dialysis patients getting treated at two renowned corporate hospitals in the city have been the latest source of COVID-19 infection in the L.B. Nagar zone, which has of late become the hotspot for the virus spread in city and Telangana.

The primary source of infection for at least 40 COVID-19 patients in LB Nagar zone are dialysis wards of the two hospitals, one located in Malakpet and another in Musheerabad.

Kidney patients need dialysis at regular intervals for blood purification, for which they need to visit hospitals even during COVID-19 lockdown.

Officials under the condition of anonymity informed that over 10 persons undergoing dialysis at the two hospitals have tested positive for COVID-19 and one of them died of the complications.

The patients are all from Kapra and Saroornagar circles. Thirty of their family members and close contacts contracted the infection, which was revealed only during aggressive testing, a circle level official informed. Though the patients were diagnosed a while ago, the primary contacts were not tested immediately, as they did not show any symptoms. The decision to test all primary contacts was taken recently, following which there was a spurt in the number of positive cases.

“The elderly dialysis patient, who died recently, had 13 members in his family, of whom 10 tested positive. We have exhausted all primary contacts, and hopefully, there won’t be any spurt in the coming days,” said the official.

The number of cases from L.B. Nagar has spiralled recently, even as the cases from almost all the other areas in the city are showing downward trend. Total cases from five circles of the zone — L.B. Nagar, Saroornagar, Hayatnagar, Uppal and Kapra — stand at 74 as on Monday, of which 61 are active cases. Seven persons died and six have been discharged.

Before the spurt caused by the dialysis units of the corporate hospitals, the source of infection was a single person — a groundnut trader in Malakpet. He is surmised to have contracted it from a Suryapet contact. The trader got himself admitted in a private hospital near Vanasthalipuram with complaints of bodyache and fever, but was offered wrong treatment for dengue.

Many visitors

“While he was in hospital, several members of his family and extended family visited him, which resulted in the disease spreading far and wide,” an official informed. The hospital has now been closed, and all the staff have been quarantined.

When a few members of the trader’s extended family attended a birthday party, the infection spread even wider.

As per official information, the number of his primary and secondary contacts who contracted the infection stood at 22.

The trader’s aged father, and his brother with other co-morbidities, died of the COVID-19 complications. The trader, however, is on the path to recovery and may soon be discharged.