KARACHI : Dengue death toll rises to four: ‘200 suspected cases reported’
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 27: The deadly mosquito-borne disease dengue fever has claimed another life at a private hospital over the past 24 hours, pushing the overall death toll in the current month to four.
According to health officials, a 40-year-old woman from Hyderabad was brought to a health facility on Stadium Road, with a history of bleeding and a very low platelets count, about a week ago. She was tested positive for dengue, which developed some other health complications as well.
Earlier, a 17-year-old girl had died due to dengue about 10-12 days back at the same hospital, while a 25-year-old female patient who had been tested positive for dengue died at the Aga Khan University Hospital last Sunday.
About four days back, another woman in her thirties and said to be the wife of a doctor had also died of dengue at another private hospital. Her husband and son are also reported to have contracted dengue fever.
‘200 suspected cases of dengue’
When contacted, a health department official said that he had information about three deaths due to the disease since Sept 23, but details had yet to be received from the hospitals.
The official said that 18 more cases with suspected viral haemorrhagic fever had been admitted to Ziauddin Hopsital, Bismillah Taqi Hopsital and Liaquat National Hospital during the last 24 hours ending at 3pm on Thursday.
About 200 dengue patients had been admitted to various public and private hospitals during a period from late August to Sept 26, he added.
In the meantime, chairing a meeting of health officials to discuss the dengue outbreak, Sindh Health Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad directed EDOs (Health) of all the districts of the province to compile and submit a report of suspected dengue fever cases on a daily basis to the provincial dengue monitoring cell.
Reports must be collected from all public sector and private health care facilities, he said, adding that this was mainly to help evolve a strategy and check the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.
The minister said that he would also approach the prime minister to seek a waiver of import duty imposed on platelets bags and dengue fever test kits.
He also asked the special secretary for health, Dr Abdul Majid, and the Director-General Health, Dr Hadi Baksh Jatoi, to arrange a series of seminars at Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur by involving the stakeholders, including vice-chancellors of medical universities and representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO), so as to create awareness about dengue and its preventive measures among the masses.
