KARACHI: While laboratory confirmation of suspected ‘chikungunya’ cases is still awaited, hundreds of patients with complaints of high-grade fever and severe joint pain continued to be reported at public and private sector hospitals in Malir, it emerged on Sunday.

According to sources, the number of suspected ‘chikungunya’ cases rose to 1,000 at a Sindh government hospital in Malir in a single day, though their number at private healthcare settings could not be estimated.

Eighty staff members of the same hospital, who were infected with the disease, are recovering. No death has so far been reported.

“The hospital received 1,000 cases with high-grade fever and crippling joint pain today,” said Dr Rehana Saba Bajwa, medical superintendent of the Sindh Government Hospital Saudabad, Malir, while speaking to Dawn late in the evening.

An emergency has been declared in the 200-bed facility.

According to Dr Bajwa, patients had come from areas including Malir, Gadap, Murad Memon Goth, Pipri, Gulshan-i-Hadeed, Quaidabad, Korangi and Shah Faisal Colony. There was one case from Sharea Faisal.

“The joint pain was so severe in some cases that patients couldn’t even walk,” she added.

Answering a question whether these cases are of chikungunya, a viral mosquito-borne disease, she said: “We can’t say that unless a diagnosis is made. A team of health experts is expected to visit us on Monday that will make arrangements for disease diagnosis.”

Patient with high-grade fever and debilitating knee pain, she said, had been coming to the hospital since the second week of November. “We thought they were of dengue and malaria. However, the situation became serious when the number of cases rose from 500 to 1,500 in a day and 80 members of our staff, including 20 doctors, also got infected.”

She also requested authorities to launch a massive cleanliness campaign in the city especially in the suburbs.

Director of health services Dr Abdul Waheed Panhwar, who also visited the government hospital, said: “It will take some time before the health department officially declares what has caused this illness.”

The province, he said, had a good number of experts and, hopefully, help from Islamabad wouldn’t be needed to identify the virus.

“Though this disease has been reported from regional countries like India and Bangladesh, there is no documented case of chikungunya in Pakistan,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association has called upon the government once again to set up a state-of-the-art virology laboratory in the province to make prompt diagnosis in cases of unknown infections.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2016