KARACHI: A 28-year-old woman, Kanwal from Landhi, died of dengue fever-related complications on Wednesday, raising the year’s total number of such deaths to 16 in the metropolis.

Liaquat National Hospital spokesman Anjum Rizvi, confirming the latest dengue fatality, said the woman was brought to the emergency department of the hospital on Tuesday night in a precarious condition with profuse bleeding and extremely low platelet count.

“She was immediately shifted to the ICU and despite all possible efforts, she could not be saved,” he said. An official associated with the Sindh Dengue Prevention and Control Programme said that dengue fever cases were being constantly reported across the city.

“There are, however, certain pockets registered to have a high number of (dengue fever) cases and these are mainly those getting their water supplies from sources other than regular piped water,” said the official, who is also a senior doctor associated with the provincial health department.

Regretting that the city is increasingly dependent on water tankers and associated services, he said this was one of the major factors contributory to the outbreak of the disease.

Answering another query, he said faulty infrastructure was also aggravating the situation and people with weak immunity were easy victims of the infection.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2019