RAWALPINDI: Two new dengue patients arrived at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) on Saturday, increasing the number of the dengue cases to three.

Mohammad Tanveer, 29, from New Katarian, was brought to the hospital with high fever and later diagnosed with the dengue fever.

Nazeer Ahmed, 23, a university student, came to the hospital with the history of dengue fever. The doctors said the patient had come from Karachi and was suffering from the dengue fever. On Thursday, Mohammad Adil, 22, a resident of Gujar Khan, who works at the HFH dispensary, was admitted to the dengue ward of the hospital.

A senior doctor at the HFH told Dawn that the hospital employee lived in Gujar Khan and might have contracted the virus there. “After the arrival of the patient at the HFH, we conducted an indoor residual surveillance (IRS) in the hospital and the patient’s house to avoid the spread of the dengue virus.”

About the dengue patient from New Katarian, the doctor said the district health department and the local administration were informed to carry out fogging in the area.

He said the third patient contracted the virus in Karachi, adding all the three patients had been kept in the isolation ward.

Congo Crimean hemorrhagic fever suspected patient Ghulam Rabani was brought from Chakwal to the HFH on Thursday night but samples sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) showed he was not suffering from the Congo fever.

“The patient was referred to the HFH from the District Headquarters Hospital Chakwal after his platelets started decreasing. But the NIH confirmed on Saturday that he was not suffering from the Congo fever,” the doctor said. He said the patient was working at a butcher shop and suffering from high fever for the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, Punjab Minister for Labour and Manpower Raja Ashfaq Sarwar on Saturday expressed concerns over the detection of dengue larvae in different areas of the garrison city and directed the local administration and the health department to speed up the work to eliminate the larvae.

Chairing a meeting held to review the anti-dengue campaign, the minister said coordination among government departments was necessary to speed up the drive to eliminate the dengue mosquitoes.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2016