KARACHI: 68 patients with VHF report at 11 hospitals: Death toll rises to 22
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Oct 23: One more patient succumbed to dengue fever while 68 fresh cases of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) were reported at 11 government and private hospitals on Monday, said official sources.
The number of patients tested dengue-positive also increased to 351 with the receipt of blood test reports of some more patients during the past 24 hours ending at 2pm Monday. Another 47 VHF patients were discharged after being provided treatment at eight hospitals.
According to Dr Abdul Majid, the focal person for the Dengue Fever Cell, the latest death of a dengue patient is of Ms Parveen, 27, a resident of Agra Taj Colony, who had been admitted to the Liaquat National Hospital some days back.
Her death took the dengue-related fatalities toll in the city to 22, he said. The last death from dengue was of a 30-year-old man and had taken place at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on October 20. The overall death toll of the patients with suspected VHF in the entire province had now risen to 25, said Dr Majid.
He further stated that with addition of 68 fresh cases admitted to the hospitals across the city, the total number of people afflicted with VHF had now gone up to 1,334. He said that number of dengue-positive cases was also on the increase.
It was learnt that in addition to the cases handled by private hospitals, the Sindh Services Hospital that had started collecting samples a couple of days back, had tested 13 out of 53 cases dengue-positive the other day.
In the meantime, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital has started free diagnosis of dengue fever and found five of the six blood samples containing dengue virus.
The Aga Khan University Hospital reported that as of Monday, it had 24 dengue-related in-house patients out of whom 15 had been tested dengue-positive, while nine others were found negative. It has admitted 236 patients since June 14.
According to the Dengue Fever Cell of the Sindh health department, the AKUH admitted 12 fresh patients with the history of bleeding, high-grade fever, rashes and vomiting, and discharged six such patients after treatment.
The JPMC also received 12 fresh dengue cases on Monday which took the number of in-house patients with the VHF to 32 at the hospital. The Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, which admitted 11 fresh VHF cases, had 17 such patients on Monday.
The position at other hospitals in the city was as follows: Liaquat National Hospital: 48 (four new), Civil Hospital Karachi: 17 (seven new), Dr Ziauddin Hospital: 32 (10 new), Bismillah Taqi Hospital: five (three new), Hamid Hospital: three (all new), National Institute of Child Health:12 (four new) and Baqai Hospital: seven (two new).
VHF patients have been coming from almost all localities, including Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Garden, PECHS, M. A. Jinnah Road, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, Shah Faisal Colony, Malir, Korangi, Landhi, Defence, Clifton, Saddar, New Karachi, North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, North Karachi, Orangi Town, Bihar Colony, Baldia Town and Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
Experts say that the only preventive measure needed to be taken immediately is to locate and destroy the breeding places of the Aedes Aegypti, a female mosquito class responsible for the outbreak, through fogging of insecticides.
They say that people should keep in mind that this particular mosquito breeds on the surface of clean water, and must ensure that no accumulation of water in pots, buckets and other such containers is left for long in order to eliminate chances of the insect finding an ideal breeding place within a household.
