Country’s youngest coronavirus patient recovering in Ctg

A 10-month-old-baby, who was tested Covid-19 positive on April 21, is getting better at Chattogram General Hospital (CGH).

Doctors said the first sample of the country's youngest coronavirus positive patient tested negative yesterday and they would release the boy from the hospital if the second sample showed a similar result.

If the baby gets discharged from the hospital, it will be a milestone for the hospital where Covid-19 patients of all ages have received treatment and recovered; the child will be the youngest survivor in the country.

Earlier, a 67-year-old man, the first Covid-19 positive patient in Chattogram, was discharged from this hospital. He was followed by a number of patients of different ages, said hospital sources.

Till yesterday, 15 patients have been discharged from CGH while 36 have been undergoing treatment at the hospital's isolation ward, said Dr Abdur Rab, a senior consultant of medicine at CGH. He said three patients have so far died.

"We'll send the second sample of the child for testing within a few days," said Dr Rab. "If the test is also negative, we will release the child, who is the youngest Covid-19 patient in the country," he said. Dr Rab said the condition of all the patients undergoing treatment is now stable.

CGH is one of the two hospitals in Chattogram dedicated by the government for treating Covid-19 patients. The hospital has a 100-bed isolation ward and a 10-bed ICU.

EXCELLING IN SPITE OF LIMITED RESOURCES

Doctors at the hospital said even though they have limited resources, they are trying their best to treat Covid-19 patients.

Patients and their attendees seem to agree.

Md Rumon (25) of Satkania upazila was discharged from CGH on Tuesday. Thanking the healthcare providers at the hospital, he wrote on his Facebook page, "The doctors and nurses did their best… I'm grateful to them."

Rumon and five other members of his family were tested positive for Covid-19. Of them, three were discharged on Tuesday and two are undergoing treatment.

On April 14, Asiful Haque, a medical officer of Banshkhali Upazila Health Complex, was tested positive and undergoing treatment in CGH. He was discharged on Friday. He also expressed gratitude towards doctors and health staffers.

Contacted, Chattogram Civil surgeon Sheikh Fazle Rabbi said, "Chattogram General Hospital has been playing a vital role in treating coronavirus patients in Chattogram. I hope this trend will continue."

However, the hospital lacks some logistical facilities.

"We do not have a portable X-ray machine and so patients are taken to another building from the isolation ward for X-ray, which puts them and others at risk," said Dr HM Hamidullah Mehedi, a junior consultant of medicine at CGH.

Besides, the hospital does not have facilities such as C-reactive protein testing and arterial blood gas analysis, he said. "We also don't have a D-dimer machine."

Asked, Abdur Rab said many Covid-19 patients die due to internal blood clotting.

Through D-dimer tests doctors can have a clear idea whether a patient is at risk of internal blood clotting and can take early measures to thwart it, he said. "It is an expensive test and most patients cannot afford it; even most diagnostic centres do not have this facility."

Through arterial blood gas Analysis, the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in arteries can be known, he said. "Patients will be benefited if the government provides us with those equipment," he said.

Dr Asim Kumar Nath, superintendent of CGH, said they have already written to the Ministry of Health for an X-ray machine and other necessary equipment.