PESHAWAR, Oct 27: There are signs of the outbreak of dengue haemorrhagic fever in the NWFP as a boy died of haemorrhagic fever here on Thursday and two other suspect patients of the disease were hospitalised.

A seven-year-old child died of dengue haemorrhagic fever in a local hospital, confirmed an official of the World Health Organisation.

“The National Institute of Health, Islamabad, has confirmed the boy had dengue haemorrhagic fever,” said Dr Mohammad Saeed Akbar Khan, WHO’s operation medical officer for the NWFP and Fata.

He said Mohammad Jamil, son of Malik Jehan, of the Mera village in the Kabal tehsil of Swat was brought to the Khyber Teaching Hospital on Oct 15 with high fever, purpuric rash, homeostasis and in deeply comatose condition.

On the third day, he developed abnormal behaviour and started purpuric rash bleeding from gastro-intestinal tract and oliguria. His kidneys were not functioning properly. On the fourth day, he suffered shock. The patient was also treated for maintice, acute renal failure and cerebral malaria.

“On examination, he was found deadly comatose, oedematous and fitting off and on. Clinically, he had hyponatriaemia and deranged renal function,” said a physician at the KTH.

“Later, the patient was shifted to the isolation room,” he said. “His blood sample was sent to the NIH, which confirmed that he had haemorrhagic fever,” said the doctor. One suspect patient of dengue haemorrhagic fever was admitted to the KTH and the other to the District Headquarters Hospital, Swabi.

Doctors of the Swabi DHQ in a letter to the WHO’s office on Friday said 45-year-old Mukhtiar Ahmad, son of Syed Mahmood, of Muhib Banda, Taraqai village, Swabi, was admitted to the hospital with high fever and headache from 30 hours. They said the patient’s malarial and typhoid tests were negative with mild throat congestion and lower extremity pain, adding that the patient had come from Landi, Karachi, where the epidemic had broken out.

“Brothers of the patient are also being treated in Karachi as suspect patients of haemorrhagic dengue fever,” they said.

A high-level meeting, to be presided over by the provincial additional chief secretary, will be held on Saturday to chalk out a strategy to cope with the situation.

Officials at the health secretariat said the acting secretary health had drawn the attention of the government towards the problem. “Otherwise, there were no measures taken against dengue fever,” said an official, adding that hospitals in the province were not ready to treat such patients.

Sources in the KTH said they had admitted another suspect patient of haemorrhagic fever, Feroz Khan, son of Rahat Khan, of Sufaid Dheri on Thursday night. The patient has been shifted to the isolation room and his blood sample sent to the NIH.

Sources in the health department said haemorrhagic dengue fever had killed seven people, including two army cadets, in August 2003.

There are two forms of the disease – dengue fever, which has a benign and self-limiting course and dengue haemorrhagic fever, a severe form of the disease. It can be fatal if unrecognised and not properly treated.

Symptoms of the dengue fever are high fever, severe frontal headache, retro-orbital pain, myalgia, arthralgias, nausea and vomiting, and often a macula-popular rash. In addition, many patients may notice a change in taste sensation. The illness is clinically indistinguishable from influenza, measles or rubella. This acute phase lasts up to one week followed by 1-2 week period of convalescence characterised by weakness, malaise and anorexia.