KARACHI, Dec 15: With the arrival of a cold December, cases of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) are also declining as different hospitals of the city admitted nine more such patients during the past 24 hours.

According to the data released by the Dengue Fever Cell of the Sindh health department, of the 4,541 VHF or dengue fever patients admitted to hospitals since June, 46 died in government or private hospitals in the city, while the other four in interior of Sindh.

On Friday the number of patients detected positive for dengue fever in Karachi reached 1,502.

Dr Tajammul Baig of the DFC said nine more patients were brought to five city hospitals for dengue fever treatment during the last 24 hours while six patients were discharged. At present, 36 patients are admitted to eight hospitals. According to the DFC data, no new dengue patient was admitted to hospitals in the interior of Sindh on Friday.

A maximum of 15 patients were currently admitted with suspected VHF at the Aga Khan University Hospital.

According to an AKUH statement, a total of 796 patients with ages ranging between 6 to 82 years were admitted to the AKUH during the period from June 14 to December 15 with suspected viral haemorrhagic fever.

Out of these, 17 patients expired due to severity of disease, while 764 recovered and were discharged.

The patients suffered from symptoms ranging from bleeding, diarrhoea, vomiting to abdominal pain.Some 313 patients were diagnosed to have dengue fever, three patients suffered from Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), while in the remaining, the special serological tests were either negative or the results were pending.

A total of 756 patients were received from Karachi and the remaining patients came from Larkana, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Thatta, Dadu, Saeedabad, Nawabshah, Rahim Yar Khan, Gharo, Mirpurkhas, Sujawal, Gilgit, Balochistan and Saudi Arabia.