LAHORE, Oct 8: As many as nine more people fell prey to dengue fever with death toll rising to 217 in Lahore on Saturday. The Saturday’s dengue victims were: Arooj, 18, daughter of ex-DMS Ganga Ram Hospital; Mrs Iqbal, 60, and Mukhtaran Bibi, 60, died in Services Hospital, Aliza, 7, a resident of Bahawalnagar, died in Mayo; Nazia, 24, of Kot Khawaja Saeed, died in Ganga Ram; Khalid, 38, of Township, and Shaukat Ara, 60, died in Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Latif Husain, 60, died in Jinnah Hospital and Shehla Maryam, 40, of Shadbagh, died due to dengue fever in a private hospital.

As many as 486 patients have been tested dengue fever (IgM) positive, rising the tally of patients to 24,828 in Lahore.

As many as 105 patients were tested positive in Mayo Hospital, 23 in Children's Hospital, 46 in Jinnah, 43 in Sir Ganga Ram, 36 in Services, 17 in Lahore General Hospital, 38 in Shaikh Zayed Hospital, 36 in Institute of Public Health and another 142 in different public and private infirmaries in the provincial metropolis.

Meanwhile, the Punjab health department has confirmed eight deaths, including seven in Lahore and one from Bahawalnagar, due to Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) during the last 24 hours. The death toll has risen to 194 in Punjab and 175 in Lahore, the department spokesman said.

According to health department's report released on Saturday, the total number of dengue patients reported in Punjab from January 2011 to-date has reached 15,035 out of which over 12,961 were diagnosed in Lahore alone. As many as 275 new dengue fever cases have been found in Punjab out of which at least 200 fresh cases have been reported in Lahore during the last 24 hours.

At present 1,517 dengue patients are under treatment in different hospitals of Punjab out of which 1,224 were admitted to different hospitals of Lahore. Besides, 14,760 dengue patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals in Punjab including 12,761 from different infirmaries of Lahore so far.