KARACHI, Nov 25: Three more deaths from dengue have been confirmed by the Sindh Health department while the total number of reported cases with suspected viral haemorrhagic fever continues to increase. The number of such cases reported by government and private hospitals in the city has risen to 2,564.

An official of the provincial Dengue Monitoring Cell, Dr Khalid Masood, said that two of the deaths occurred at the Liaquat National Hospital (LNH) on November 22. Another patient died at Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) on November 14, pushing the number of total registered deaths from dengue to 20.

A 17-year-old youth, a resident of Malir, was tested positive for dengue virus after he was rushed to the LNH on Nov 19. He died on Thursday night.

Another patient who died at LNH on Thursday was a 68-year-old woman who was brought from PECHS on Nov 21 and her serological test reports were awaited, said Dr Masood.

The third patient, a 50-year-old man, was brought to the CHK on Nov 10. He, who was tested positive for dengue and died four days later.

A total of 29 patients with suspected dengue were rushed to six hospitals between Friday night and Saturday evening. The patients mostly reported with high grade fever, rashes and bleeding, said officials in the health department.The number of patients who were admitted to different hospitals till Saturday stood at 76. As many as 865, out of the 2,564 patients brought to city hospitals over the last three and a half months were found dengue-positive.

A maximum of 13 fresh dengue patients were rushed to Dr Ziauddin Hospital, followed by eight to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, three to Darul Shifa and two to Bismillah Taqi Institute.

Experts have been pressing that Sindh and city governments to improve their working and pay extra attention to the monitoring and surveillance of dengue fever and take practical measures to eliminate the virus.