Survey of coronavirus-tested people launched across Pakistan to build 'confirmative database'.

Byline: Imran Ayub

KARACHI -- The fraternity of medical scientists, key public health institutions and leading healthcare professionals on Wednesday launched a national survey of people tested for the coronavirus in Pakistan that the experts said would build 'confirmative database' of the pandemic in the country, leading to immediate and drastic measures while helping the decision-makers to devise their strategy in line with trends and numbers.

The announcement of the launch came during a press conference, which was addressed by leading health professionals and senior medical scientists who said the survey was being initiated across the country by the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) in collaboration with the Health Research Advisory Board (HealthRab) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). They jointly addressed the conference through video link from different cities of the country.

They said the survey of Covid-19 tested people would help understand symptomology of the viral disease in relation to age, gender, and comorbidities. It would also bring the course of the disease with its implications into the knowledge of healthcare professionals while highlighting the psychological impact of the disease on various age groups.

Medical scientists, leading healthcare professionals say the study will help understand symptomology of the viral disease

'More importantly it would help in determining ultimate outcomes of the disease,' said Dr Zakiuddin Ahmed of HealthRab. 'Around the world and mostly in the developed countries, we have seen that the numbers, data and consistent research on the virus helped them in devising their strategy which proved successful. We are making the same effort here to gather the numbers, build the strong and authentic database and then help our policymakers to go for the decision in line with the existing trend.'

Read: Covid-19: where does testing help?

Dr Mumtaz Ali Khan from the NIH said the number of coronavirus cases in the country had started dropping during the last couple of weeks but at the same time he mentioned that the figure of testing across Pakistan had also declined during the same period. However, he said the situation would become stable because the number of hospitalisations had decreased over the past few days while the availability of beds and crucial support for serious patients at the health...