KARACHI, Oct 20: A pregnant woman died of viral disease in Deh Allah Bano, located in Union Council Gabopat of Keamari Town, raising the death toll from the infection to eight in the area. Earlier, two women – one of them pregnant – had died in Ali Baksh Goth, while four children and a man had died in different villages falling in the same jurisdiction.

The area, under the grip of a viral disease for a month, has failed to receive any effective government intervention so far.

According to Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum representative Surriya Talpur, the deceased, 27-year-old Zubaida Younus residing in Haji Ibrahim Goth, was eight months pregnant with her first baby. Though she had been ill throughout Ramazan, her condition deteriorated on Saturday and she was taken to a Mauripur clinic.

“She complained of high fever and severe joint pain and was discharged when her condition improved a bit after being administered injections and drips. Later, we are told that she died within three hours of her arrival in the village,” she said, adding that this was the second death of an expectant mother by viral infection in Deh Allah Bano.

Earlier, 23-year-old Maluka, also pregnant with her first child, died with similar symptoms in Ali Baksh Goth a day before Eid. On Eid day, 50-year-old Kulsoom died in Haji Noor Mohammad Goth.

“Successive deaths in the area, that too on Eid, overwhelmed the poor villagers with grief. They desperately need economic support in terms of food and medical aid as the sickness is consuming all their resources,” Ms Talpur lamented.

According to her, the disease has affected almost all the 18 villages of Deh Allah Bano. Recently, 12 people of Haji Noor Mohammad Goth were treated at different Mauripur clinics. Two of them are in critical condition, admitted to the ICU of the Civil Hospital. They are identified as Lal Mohammad and Karim Bux.

“The dangerous part is that none of the patients that have been ‘treated’ so far could develop immunity against the disease as they fall ill again after receiving treatment. There is no sign of a fumigation drive in the villages which have literally been invaded by mosquitoes,” she said while criticising the town health administration which, she said, had failed to contain the disease.

When asked about the testing of the blood samples collected for identification of the virus, Keamari Town Health Officer Dr Nazeer Ahmed Kolachi said that of the 50 blood samples that had been tested at the Civil Hospital’s laboratory, a few of them were malaria-positive.

“We don’t know what virus was present in other samples since the tests were carried out only to examine the presence of malaria,” he maintained while dispelling the impression that it could be dengue as none of the patients, according to him, had dengue symptoms.

“In the absence of any government virology laboratory in the city, it’s difficult to say anything with certainty about the rest of the samples. However, every viral infection ends after a limited period, so we are giving symptomatic treatment to patients,” he said.

The last time the town administration’s medical team had visited the affected villages was on Oct 11, he said, while adding that a medical camp would be established in the area on Monday in which routine vaccinations would be carried out along with free distribution of malaria medicines.