Health Department officials are mulling setting up of a ‘Clean Ward’ where people suffering from rare and highly infectious diseases such as Novel Coronavirus (nCoV), Ebola and Nipah virus can be admitted. The design and infrastructure of the ward would be such that infections from the patients would not spread to doctors, nurses or anyone else on the premises.
Besides an isolation ward, ICU with ventilators and general wards will also be made available to the patients. Depending on the severity of disease, one would be shifted from one ward to another. All such facilities are proposed to be located in a single building.
Currently, anyone is suspected to have nCoV is admitted at Sir Ronald Ross Institute of Tropical and Communicable Diseases, better known as Fever Hospital, in Nallakunta. If the patient’s condition worsens followed by severe difficulty in breathing, he/she has to be rushed to Gandhi Hospital for ventilator support.
This can be avoided if the Clean Ward is set up with all other supporting facilities in one building.
Land at disposal
Officials said they had initially considered the Fever Hospital premises for establishing the Clean Ward at an estimated cost of ₹16 crore, but the Government General and Chest Hospital at Erragadda was eventually selected since it has vast swathes of land. Officials added that the design has been provided by the technical committee of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Testing in city
Meanwhile, a day after the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that four labs of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)’s Viral Research and Diagnostics Lab Network in four cities, including Hyderabad, were activated to test samples for detection of nCoV, Telangana Health Department officials said the ICMR lab at Gandhi Hospital here will be chosen for the purpose.
Staff at the hospital will be trained in handling and testing the samples. It is learnt that reagents and testing kits would be supplied to perform the tests. It will take around 10 days to initiate such tests.
As of now, samples collected form those suspected to be having nCoV are sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune. Time taken to transport the samples can be significantly cut down once the ICMR lab at Gandhi Hospital is activated.
