MINGORA: A mysterious fever, which was earlier termed as seasonal by doctors, has been reported in more areas of Swat.

“We had heard about the problem in Faizabad area, which affects joints with acute pain and fever, but after a few days it spread to our village affecting hundreds of patients,” said Suleman Khan, a resident of Amankot. He said the disease had spread because of inadequate steps by the district health office.

Residents of Gul Kada village also complained about prevalence of the mysterious fever in their area and said that people suffered with the illness in every other house of the area. “I have never experienced such a high fever with pain in bones. I felt as my bones were breaking and the fever continued for a month,” said Iqbal Jehan, a 50-year-old woman in Gul Kada area.

Many patients and their family members said that they were not satisfied with the medical staff in Saidu teaching hospital as the doctors prescribed only paracetamol tablets and sent them back.

“My mother was ill with fever and she was in pain, but when I took her to the hospital the doctors prescribed paracetamol and sent her back home. She was suffering with fever for over a month,” said Farman Ali, a resident of Landeykas in Mingora. He said that his mother recovered from fever, but she was still feeling weak.

When contacted, district health officer Dr Ghulam Subhani said that medical teams had screened hundreds of people and cases of typhoid and malaria were detected.

“We have done fogging spray in over 2,000 houses,” he claimed and added that they had been regularly sending medical teams to different areas asking people to keep their stored water covered. He said so far no dengue case had surfaced in the district.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2018