Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital says no space for measles isolation ward

PUNE: The Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial (YCM) Hospital dean, Rajendra Wabale, on Friday expressed his inability to start a measles isolation ward at the health facility due to space issues.

The medical department of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) had asked the hospital to start the isolation ward earlier this week, following three suspected cases from Chikhali and Kudalwadi slum pockets.

PCMC's additional health and medical officer Pavan Salve told TOI, "If needed, we can start a separate ward at YCMH, but have asked all the civic hospitals (New Thergaon Hospital, Bhosari hospital, New Jijamata Hospital and Akurdi Hospital, among others) to be ready with 5-10 beds in case of need. From our previous experiences, we have learnt that not all positive patients would require hospitalization. The surveillance across the civic limits is underway and all the medical officials are being kept in the loop about the current outbreak in other parts of the state."

On the number of samples, Salve said they have sent over 100 samples to Haffkine Institute this year, of which five samples are pending, while the rest have come negative.

Salve said the measles-rubella vaccine is given to 9-month-old and 16-month-old children. If parents did not immunize their children for any reason, they can avail the vaccine up to the age of five across all the civic hospitals every Thursday free of charge from 9.30am to 3.30pm.

Suryakant Devkar, chief immunization officer of PMC, told TOI, "We already have Naidu hospital ready. So far, we have sent 154 samples to Haffkine Institute."