September 14, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 13, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: Two dengue fever suspects brought to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) have tested positive, the hospital said on Saturday.

However the two victims, a woman and her four-year-old daughter brought to the hospital from Edhi Home last Wednesday with complaints of fever, restlessness and bleeding, were out of danger.

Ishrat Bibi, 30, and her daughter Habiba Bibi were kept in the isolation room of Medical Ward II and were being provided medical treatment.

Samples of the patients’ blood were rushed to the National Institute of Health where they tested positive. Pims administration said both were out of danger and would be discharged soon. The hospital administration took strict precautionary measures including the use of nets and frequent spraying of the ward to stop the outbreak in the hospital.

Earlier, the doctors warned of a dengue fever outbreak in the capital after first case of this season tested positive for the disease on July 16.

A Frontier Constabulary constable was the first that contracted the disease in the barracks where he had been staying. Afterwards three of his other colleagues staying in the same barracks also acquired the disease.

Likewise, Faisal, 16, a native of Hazara, was brought to the hospital with history of fever and severe headache and body pains by his father on July 19. Similarly, Zulqurnain, student of class 10 and resident of Shakrial was also brought to the hospital with complaints of fever, vomiting and pain in body, two days ago.

The administration has made it clear that “neither there is any vaccination nor was any specific treatment for the disease.”

Usually the treatment is symptomatic and patient is treated according to symptoms -- drugs are given for pain fever, vomiting, bleeding, etc. Worried doctors said epidemiologically one positive case means there were several other cases in the pipeline.

Islamabad has been regularly getting dengue fever cases over the past few years. The cases normally started coming in September and their figures peaked by November, but this year early monsoon has brought in early cases.

“The rains have produced conditions conducive for the virus,” a doctor explained.

Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes aedes aegypti. It is an acute illness with symptoms ranging from headache, fever, exhaustion, severe joint to muscle pain, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy), and rash.

The deadly dengue virus was not a major health issue in the country a few years back. The first confirmed outbreak of dengue fever was reported in Pakistan in 1994. Since then only sporadic cases were reported till 2006, when a major outbreak was witnessed with over 1000 confirmed cases mostly from Sindh and Punjab.

Prospects for reversing the recent trend of increased epidemic activity and geographic expansion of dengue fever are not promising, the health experts warn.

With no new mosquito control technology available, public health authorities have emphasized disease prevention and mosquito control through community efforts to reduce larvae breeding sources.

Aedes aegypti mosquito bites during the day, lives indoors in domestic settings and breeds in both clean and polluted water. While adult mosquito is killed in 38 degrees centigrade, the eggs can withstand desiccation and can hatch even the next year when conditions are conducive.

Dengue fever, experts believe, was not a health issue alone and was also related to our environment. They contend that the role of municipal administration was all the more important since fumigation, fogging and removal of solid waste from the cities was their job and was seldom performed satisfactorily.