KARACHI: One more dengue suspect dies: 56 fresh cases reported
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Nov 15: Dengue-related fatalities continued to occur on the sixth consecutive day on Wednesday as one more patient afflicted with the mosquito-borne disease died at a private hospital amid reports of 56 fresh arrivals at different hospitals.
With the latest death of a man, according to the data released by the Dengue Fever Cell of the Sindh health department, dengue death toll increased to 38 in Karachi and 42 in the province.
Till 2pm Wednesday 1,274 patients, out of 3,545 admitted for treatment of viral haemorrhagic fever, were detected as positive cases of dengue fever.
In the meantime, individuals are also reporting diagnostic centres in the public and private sectors for testing and confirmation of dengue. The percentage of dengue positive cases among the serologically tested persons ranged from 20 to 64, revealed a survey by Dawn.
Giving details of the death, Dr Shakeel A Mullick of the DFC Sindh, said one Waheed Bux, 70, a resident of Malir, who was a VHF suspect, died at Aga Khan University Hospital on Wednesday. A dengue test report was also awaited in the case of the deceased. Waheed was admitted to the hospital on Nov 11.
He said as many as 1,318 patients infected by mosquito bites have, so far, been confirmed as dengue positive in the province. While the number of patients admitted in hospitals during the last five months in Sindh came to 3,624.
A maximum of 10 new patients each were admitted to Dr Ziauddin Hospital and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre during the last 24 hours ending at 2pm on Wednesday. Patients were rushed to hospitals from various localities, including Mianwali Colony Site, Shantinagar Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Baloch Mohalla Lyari, Kalabaoard Malir, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Orangi, Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, Surjani town, Defence, PECHS, Baldia Town and Shah Faisal Colony.
It was further learnt that patients from places outside Karachi, such as Umer Kot, Kalri and Mirpurkhas have also been brought to Karachi for treatment of dengue fever or similar problems.
An AKUH press release said 26 patients were at present hospitalised with suspect viral haemorrhagic fever, which obviously reflected a decrease in the number of such cases within the last two weeks.
Of the 627 patients of dengue or VHF admitted to AKUH, 13 could not survive due to severity of the disease, while 587 recovered and were discharged, added the press release.
The patient position in various city hospitals on Wednesday remained as follows: AKU-26 (seven new), LNH-38 (six new cases), CHK-13 (No new case), ZUH-47(10), JPMC-21 (10 new cases), Bismillah Taqi Hospital-21 (eight new cases), NICH-11 (four new cases), Abbasi Shaheed Hospital-50 (seven new cases), Baqai Hospital-10 (No new case), Patel General Hospital – four (two new cases), Darul Shifa Hospital – seven (two new cases).
It was learnt that a number of people were reporting to private hospitals and there were problems in providing details of dengue suspected patients on a daily basis.
On the other hand, some data acquired from a couple of private and government hospitals gave to understand that a large number of people have started approaching diagnostic laboratories, both in the government and private sector for confirmation of dengue.
According to AKU sources, the hospital received 349 samples for IgM test on Nov 11, out of which 122 (35 per cent) were found dengue positive. On Nov 10 and 11, the hospital received a total of 543 samples, out of which 121 (23 per cent) were dengue positive.
The Bismillah Taqi Institute of Health Science and Blood Diseases Centre got 45 samples of OPD patients in three days, out of which 29 (64 per cent) were detected dengue positive.
In the meantime, three diagnostic centres set up recently by the city government at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, New Karachi Hospital and Sindh Hospital Korangi received a total of 313 samples for test, out of which 87 (28 per cent) have been found positive for dengue fever.
According to experts, for confirmation of Dengue viral infection, IgM antibodies against Dengue virus are detected in patient’s serum and presence of the antibody suggests an acute dengue viral infection. After the vector female Aedes aegypti mosquito bites, it usually takes one to two weeks before the IgM based tests give a positive result.
