BENGALURU: Tension prevailed at the Kidwai Memorial Institute or Oncology after a 28-year-old female cancer patient tested positive on Thursday. Two staff nurses and six doctors have been quarantined and their tests will be done again after five days. Also seven patients who were in that particular ward have been kept in isolation even though all their tests have come negative. They too will be tested again after five days.
Director of the Institute K Ramachandra said the female patient with small bowel cancer was admitted for a surgery on Wednesday evening and was subjected to Covid-19 test as per protocol. “She was asymptomatic and had tested negative 15 days back. However, as per protocol we tested her again on Wednesday after admission. The report has come positive,” he said.
The female patient, native of Bengaluru, has now been shifted to Victoria Hospital for Covid treatment and the BBMP has been informed. The director said that the contact tracing is being done and the hospital ward, places where the patient was taken have all been fumigated.Asked about the cancer patient’s further treatment, the director said, “This particular cancer treatment can wait for the next four weeks. We have asked the family to come back after four weeks after her Covid results come negative. It was not an emergency case.”
“There was panic in the block after the news broke out. However, we were told that contact tracing is being done,” said a family member of another patient from the same block.This is definitely a matter of concern, explained a senior health expert. He said, “Patients from all over the country come to Kidwai due to its expertise and low-cost treatment. Cancer patients are already immune-compromised. If one of them is infected, then others are vulnerable.”