June 25, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1429

KARACHI, June 24: The city reported what is probably its first dengue death for 2008 on Tuesday as a 35-year-old man died at the government Abbasi Shaheed Hospital after a severe viral ailment.

When contacted, the AMS of Abbasi Hospital, Dr Syed Javed Akhtar, said that the middle-aged patient, a resident of Paposh Nagar, was brought to the hospital on June 15, with a history of high-grade fever and vomiting blood.

After some days of treatment and showing recovery in the ICU, he was shifted to the ward, the doctor added, saying that his condition deteriorated further and was readmitted to the ICU on June 21.

Replying to a question, he said that the patient, who had been tested positive for dengue fever, had developed some other health complexities, including renal failure. “This was the first case after the dengue outbreak of 2007, which continued up to mid-December,” he said, adding that there was no other suspected case of viral hemorrhagic fever.

Another source said that the patient’s lab tests gave the impression that he had suffered hemorrhagic fever for the second time. The case is ample proof that the city government’s fumigation activities were failing to yield the desired results.

Last year, about 2,600 people reported to the major government and private hospitals for the treatment of dengue fever, out of which 22 could not survive and succumbed to the mosquito-borne disease.

According to experts, dengue fever — and its more severe form, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) — is a tropical disease caused by a virus and borne by the same mosquito that transmits yellow fever – the Aedes aegypti.