Muhammad Imran

I am Dr Muhammad Imran, Consultant Pulmonologist at Covid-19 Hospital Peshawar, Pakistan. In the midst of the corona pandemic when all activities were at a standstill, the APSR Assembly Virtual Meeting gave an excellent platform for sharing our experience with rest of the world. It was great event, where I had the opportunity to present my abstract titled "Prevalence of Covid-19 in asymptomatic healthy residents of border quarantine facilities of district Khyber, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan". Special thanks to the APSR committee for honouring me with a Silver Award. It is indeed, a moment of great pride for me. Thankyou!

In our study the overall prevalence of Covid-19 was 10%. Men were involved much more than women. Moreover, taxi and truck driving came out to be significant risk factor for contracting infection. Most of the drivers usually transport patients from border areas to different hospitals of Peshawar, stay in groups for their meals and refreshment, which puts them at increased risk for contracting infection. Most of the positive individuals remained asymptomatic throughout study periods.

Apart from sharing of our research, the Assembly Virtual Meeting provided an opportunity to meet with renowned researchers like Dr Tufik Assad. His experience about achieving better diagnoses and outcomes for patients with respiratory infections with or without a pandemic, compelled us to review our standard operating procedures and make space for BioFire FilmArray. The data for BioFire FilmArray was very convincing and would help us to make swift diagnosis and manage patients appropriately.

Furthermore, fellow abstract presenters also shared their experience on various aspects of non-TB respiratory infections. Some important topics, like role of thrombolysis in thoracic empyema, pulmonary rehabilitation and comparison between CRB and qSOFA score, were really helpful.

Lastly, I would like to thank the APSR Secretariat for arranging such knowledgeable events. I am also planning to attend symposiums on exploring the small airway disease by one of my favorite presenters Prof Alberto Papi and Asthma paradoxes by Prof Hao-Chien Wang. On the whole, the event helped us a lot in uplifting our research and professional experience and I am looking forward to being an active member of the APSR and attend future events well.