Covid patients in border districts in Bangladesh left in lurch

Almost half the 26 districts in the three bordering divisions — Rajshahi, Rangpur and Khulna — where Covid cases have steadily surged are caught in a severe health crisis as they lack access to crucial treatment facilities such as ICU beds and central oxygen supply.

The absence of basic life-saving facilities is forcing Covid patients to undertake perilous journeys, sometimes covering 100 kilometres or more, to secure beds at divisional Covid hospitals, if they can afford them.

But even general beds are scarce these days at almost all major government Covid hospitals while their tiny ICU units see the queue of Covid patients with severe symptoms grow by the day.

Those with strong recommendations are ahead in the race to get ICU beds while ordinary people keep a member of their family outside ICU units to get the news first when someone dies or recovers inside.

‘High-flow oxygen could save the lives of most Covid patients,’ believe Atikur Rahman, son of Hawa Begum, 52, who was one of the very few lucky persons with a very strong recommendation to get an ICU bed at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and was released from the hospital on Saturday.

Doctors advised that Hawa should be immediately taken to the ICU when she was admitted to the hospital with 44 per cent oxygen saturation level on May 31.

She was 58th on the ICU waiting list and her son needed to pull quite a few strings to finally jump the line four days later.

‘I got lucky but am very sad to realise the situation of many others,’ Atik told our Rajshahi University correspondent.

There are 18 ICU beds at the RMCH, which remained filled for almost a month, while 294 Covid patients or suspected patients were treated at the hospitals in Rajshahi division having the capacity to treat 271, despite several expansions over the past two weeks.

RMCH ICU in-charge Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal said that each admitted patient needed high-flow oxygen.

‘If someone dies or gets better, we replace him with the next one on the waiting list,’ said Abu Hena.

ICU patients mostly die because by the time they get there their situation is really critical, he said.

The RMCH saw 42 Covid patients take admission in a day on Sunday, the highest number of single-day admissions since the disease was first detected in the division on March 8, 2020.

The RMCH recorded 13 deaths with Covid-19 or symptoms in the 24 hours until 8:00am on Sunday.

There are eight districts in Rajshahi division and two of them — Rajshahi and Bogura — have access to 44 ICU beds.

Excluding the 10 ICU beds at a private hospital, 29 of the 34 ICU beds at government facilities in Bogura are occupied, with the rest five vacant at Mohammad Ali district hospital.  

Rajshahi division has some of the worst-affected districts such as Natore, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon reporting high Covid cases for more than two weeks.

Chapainawabganj sadar and Natore district hospitals had all their Covid beds filled until Sunday while the Covid bed occupancy at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogura stood at 80 per cent.

Covid patients in Joypurhat, Naogaon, Pabna and Sirajganj have to use cylinder oxygen as the districts do not have central oxygen supply at hospitals. 

As many as 34 out of the total 40 ICU beds in Khulna division are occupied, with four of the vacant ICU beds at private hospitals.

Only two ICU beds were vacant at two public hospitals at Meherpur and Jashore.

Chuadanga district has no ICU bed at its hospitals.

Khulna Medical College Hospital has its capacity full while the districts hospitals in Jashore and Magura are almost full.

Authorities in Satkhira Medical College Hospital on Sunday added 53 beds to its Covid unit raising the total number of Covid beds there to 150.

Five of the total 10 districts in Khulna division do not have ICU units at their hospitals.

A total of 136 Covid beds in Satkhira Medical College Hospital have already been occupied, reported the New Age correspondent in Satkhira.

The Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research confirmed the presence of the delta variant in Bangladesh in early May, just before the fresh surge in Covid cases started.

Rangpur is the last division to experience a spike in Covid cases with 21 of its 35 ICU beds filled. Twelve of the vacant ICU seats are at private hospitals. 

About 70 per cent of the Covid beds in M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital in Dinajpur and Thakurgaon district hospital are occupied.

Government data showed that three of the eight districts in Rangpur division lack ICU facilities.

The districts of Kurigram, Nilphamari and Panchagarh do not have access to central oxygen either.

The overall test positivity rate in Bangladesh in the 24-hour period till 8:00 am Sunday stood at 12.99 per cent after the testing of 18,749 samples, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

Besides, the country logged 47 deaths in the 24 hours with the overall Covid death figure reaching 13,118 since the diseases was first detected in March last year.

‘Infection is on the rise and there is no sign of it letting up,’ said DGHS line director Nazmul Islam at a press briefing on Sunday. He asked people to strictly follow the health guideline, especially in areas where the infection rate is high.

Thirty-two of the fresh dead were men while the rest were women.

Government hospitals recorded 42 new deaths and private hospitals three while two others died at home.

Division-wise, Dhaka recorded the highest 15 deaths, followed by Chattogram with nine deaths, Khulna with eight deaths, Rajshahi with six deaths, Rangpur with four deaths, Sylhet and Mymensingh with two deaths each and Barishal with one death.

Age-wise, 29 of the fresh deceased were above 60 years while eight were between 51 years and 60 years, four between 41 years and 50 years, five between 31 years and 40 years and one between 21 years and 30 years, said the DGHS update.

Although the government officially continued to claim that there was enough of everything for treating Covid cases, the local accounts of the situation differed.

‘It is almost over two weeks we have been seeing several of our acquaintances die every day,’ said Farid Ahmed, chairman Srimantapur union, Naogaon.

His 23-year-old niece, Golam Morshed, an asthma patient as well, has been in an ICU for over a week.

Morshe’ds family spent about Tk 50,000 a day for treating him at a private hospital for five days before transferring him to the RMCH eventually.

‘The poor would have to suffer and die silently. Nobody cares about them,’ said Farid.

More than 5.5 crore people live in the three bordering division with high positivity rates. The DGHS daily update said that the positivity rate stood at 37 per cent in Khulna, 28 per cent in Rangpur and 18 per cent in Rajshahi in the 24 hours until Sunday morning.

New courtesy- http://www.newagebd.net/article/140646/covid-patients-in-border-districts-in-bangladesh-left-in-lurch