Burn unit not testing all deceased

The burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, dedicated to treating Covid-19 patients, has not been testing many who died there after exhibiting Covid-19-like symptoms.

The number of Covid-19 deaths across the country was five and one on May 4 and May 5, but 23 patients died after showing coronavirus symptoms during that time at the unit.

The burn unit handed over the bodies to families without collecting samples to test if they had the pathogen, officials concerned said, citing lack of capacity to test or store bodies.

Since the unit was dedicated to Covid-19 treatment on Saturday, 40 patients died there.

One died on the first day, 12 on Sunday, 13 on Monday, 10 on Tuesday and four till yesterday evening, according to a tally of the unit.

The hospital authorities can say for sure that four of the dead were Covid-19 positive as most of the bodies were handed over without tests.

The four tested positive either at the DMCH or elsewhere before they were moved to the burn unit.

Hospital director Brig Gen AKM Nasir Uddin admitted that they handed over many bodies without tests to families and Al Markazul Islami Bangladesh, which bury bodies of patients suspected to be Covid-19 positive.

He said they had to do that since the system for collecting samples instantly was not in place and they had no room to keep the bodies.

"The bodies would have to be kept in the mortuary if we wanted to conduct the test on so many bodies … Where do I keep the bodies since the hospital has the capacity to preserve only 12 at once?" the director told The Daily Star on Tuesday.

"In normal cases, except for unclaimed bodies, people take the bodies away within a couple of hours. But we might need to keep the bodies almost a day [for collecting samples and testing] … For these reasons we are not preserving the bodies," he added.

Asked why samples had not been collected before the bodies were handed over, the director said they collected from some bodies but not all as they did not have the capacity to get samples instantly.

"We collect samples twice -- in the morning and in the afternoon … If we get [bodies] between this time, we did [collect samples] it," he said, adding that it takes time to collect samples and prepare those before tests.

"It takes nearly 12 hours for a case [to be tested]. So, we are not doing it," he said, adding that they are testing those they can.

He said they were doing so at the directive of health ministry officials.

"Patients from across the country come to DMCH … the number of deaths will be less in the main building as the critical patients, whether Covid-19 positive or not, come here [burn unit] … So it will not be right to come to the conclusion that so many people died of coronavirus here," he added.

There might be some Covid-19 positive among the dead but that does not mean that they all died from coronavirus. Most of them came to the unit in critical condition, he added.

"Previously, there was a rule that bodies would not be handed over to anyone except Markazul. Now, it has been relaxed and bodies can be handed over after informing [the receivers] about health guidelines," he said.

The director said they keep the bodies for around three hours before handover as WHO says after three hours the possibility of transmission from the body reduces.

According to hospital sources, more than 250 patients with Covid-19-like symptoms were admitted to the unit. Nearly 55 of them tested positive. Ten patients are in the ICU.