LAHORE: The number of dengue patients is on the rise in the provincial capital in spite of the tall claims of health department and the city district government.

According to a report sent by the Lahore General Hospital to Punjab director-general of health services, some 100 people visited the infirmary with dengue symptoms during the first eight days of the month. The number of such patients was 158 during the whole month of September, says the report.

Lahore has a dozen or so public sector hospitals.

LGH receives 100 patients in first eight days of month

Dr Tariq Mahmood Mian, the President of Family Physicians of Pakistan, confirmed that during the last one month or so, there had been a significant surge in the number of dengue patients visiting general practitioners (GPs) or physicians running private clinics in different parts of the city.

“Before Sept 10, GPs seldom received a suspected dengue patient in a week. Now they have 20 to 30 patients daily and the figure is higher in DHA and adjoining areas,” said Dr Mian, adding that around 40,000 GPs catered to the healthcare needs of the 75pc population of Lahore.

“The principal symptoms of dengue are high fever, severe headache, backache, joint pain, nausea and vomiting, besides eye pain and rashes.

Generally, younger children have a milder illness than older ones and adults.

The sooner the affected people consult a physician the better their chances of recovery,” he said.

He said undiagnosed or not properly treated dengue may lead to dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) that could be fatal. But with good medical management, the mortality rate could be reduced to less than 1 per cent.

The DHF could be characterised by fever that lasted for two to seven days with general signs and symptoms that could occur with many other illnesses like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and headache.

“A dengue patient has typical symptoms and GPs usually confirm the disease on the basis of Complete Blood Count (CBC) test which their patients can afford. Other tests like NS1 and PCR are a bit costly,” said Dr Mian.

Another senior doctor at the Shaikh Zayed Hospital said that private pathological laboratories have again started charging at will even for a CBC test, which was being conducted free of cost at all public hospitals.

“In 2011, when dengue spread like an epidemic, the government under the Punjab Prevention and Control of Dengue (Temporary) Regulations, 2011, had made it mandatory for all the diagnostic laboratories not to charge more than Rs90 for a CBC test. Soon after the epidemic was over, laboratories resorted to overcharging without any check,” said the doctor while seeking anonymity.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2016