KARACHI: Concerns and doubts of independent health experts over the data collection of dengue cases, its compilation, dissemination and then measures on the basis of such figures further strengthened on Thursday when the Sindh health department revised the mortality number, announcing that there were total 30 deaths due to the mosquito-borne disease this year.

In the daily update of data, the Sindh health authorities conceded that three more people had died due to complications of the dengue fever in the current month, raising the toll in Karachi to 30 while 297 were tested positive for the disease in the past 24 hours in the city.

The data said that no death due to dengue fever was reported from any other part of Sindh during the past 24 hours.

Provincial Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho argued that the data of people dying at home due to complications of dengue was not being gathered while many hospitals and labs were not reporting the cases to the health department on a daily basis.

“Situation of data collection has improved since I warned that all those labs and hospitals, which do not provide data to the health department, would be sealed, but many are still not cooperating. Officials of the Sindh Healthcare Commission and health department are making efforts to make the data more accurate,” she told newsmen on the sidelines of a conference at the University of Karachi.

On the other hand, health officials said that as many as 297 more people had been tested positive for dengue in Karachi during the past 24 hours while a total of 402 people were tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease in the province.

“Among the total cases, 82 people were tested positive in East district, 66 in Central, 86 in Korangi, 25 in South, 11 in West, 25 in Malir and two in Kemari,” officials of the Sindh health department said, quoting the daily official data of dengue cases in Sindh.

The data says that so far 3,843 dengue cases have been reported in the current month in Karachi alone while the total number of dengue cases in the current year are 6,050 in the provincial capital.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2022