Reflections of an Earliest Established Screening and Testing Facility for COVID-19 in the Largest Metropolis, Pakistan
As the world struggles to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, this article talks about the experience and findings of the first COVID-19 screening facility in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Department of Family Medicine at Aga Khan University (AKU) took initiative where COVID-19 scree...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College
2021-06-01
|
| Series: | Liaquat National Journal of Primary Care |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.lnh.edu.pk/lnjpc/pdf/c612e3d4-91f1-472a-8d37-b4e4871d6d0f.pdf |
| Summary: | As the world struggles to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, this article talks about the experience and findings of the first COVID-19
screening facility in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Department of Family Medicine at Aga Khan University (AKU) took
initiative where COVID-19 screening of stable patients first began in a dedicated area. Since testing kits were limited and community
spread had not started, nurses would screen every walk-in patient based on the presence of fever, cough, travel history and exposure
to COVID-19 positive patient in the last 14 days, and advise swab testing if indicated. Out of 742-screened patients, approximately 66%
were males and 34% were females. 38% of patients reported fever and 54% of patients reported cough. 8% (65) patients checked all
three screening criteria of cough, fever and international travel exposure whereas 35% were asymptomatic. The majority had clinical
exposure (38.3%) followed by public exposure (33.4%) and international travel exposure (19.8%). |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2707-3521 2708-9134 |