{"id":38220,"date":"2021-05-15T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T10:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=38220"},"modified":"2021-05-15T16:00:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T10:30:02","slug":"many-covid-19-deaths-go-unreported-in-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=38220","title":{"rendered":"Many Covid-19 deaths go unreported in Kashmir"},"content":{"rendered":"

Srinagar:<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span> <\/em><\/strong>The<\/em> <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span>Doctors<\/em> <\/em><\/span>Association Kashmir (DAK) on Saturday said that official figures of Covid-19 deaths are an underestimate as many deaths due to the virus go unreported in the valley.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\u201cThe actual number of people dying from Covid is higher than what is reported,\u201d said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reported death toll is an undercount and only provides a snapshot of the true toll virus has taken,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Hassan said only those deaths make it to the official count that have been confirmed as Covid-19 through RT-PCR testing.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut the test can miss more than 30 percent of positive cases,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe see many patients who test negative on RT-PCR test, but show CT features consistent with Covid-19 disease, but they are not reported,\u201d he added<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Hassan said that while elderly people have the highest rates for hospitalization and death, many are not tested for Covid in hospitals.<\/em><\/span>
\n\u201cOlder people don\u2019t develop typical Covid symptoms. In them, feeling weak or confused may be the only sign of having the infection,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/span>
\n\u201cWhen patients lack classic signs, health professionals are less likely to think of the diagnosis. This means many patients die undiagnosed,\u201d he added.<\/em><\/span>
\nThe DAK President said that many Covid deaths are hidden among other diseases.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMany patients with heart or lung disease die of Covid, but their death is attributed to their underlying condition,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Nisar said that many people with Covid symptoms don\u2019t get tested for the virus because of the fear of stigma and quarantine of family members.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSocial stigma makes people hide their illness and keep them away from seeking health care,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/span>
\nHe said that people fear that if they die of Covid-19, they will not get the decent burial and only few will come to their funeral.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, people are choosing to die at home, unrecorded,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAccurate data is vitally important for appropriate response which is key to mitigate further disaster.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

To deal with the problem, we must understand how bad it is.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Poor quality data equals poor decision which in turn leads to lost opportunity to improve population health in a crisis.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Without accurate tallies, response won\u2019t be enough to defeat the outbreak,\u201d said Dr Nisar.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Srinagar: The Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Saturday said that official figures of Covid-19 deaths are an underestimate as many deaths due to the virus go unreported in the valley. \u201cThe actual number of people dying from Covid is higher than what is reported,\u201d said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan. \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}