KARACHI: A 26-year-old woman died of dengue fever at Liaquat University Hospital in Hyderabad on Monday, raising the total reported mortalities in the province from the mosquito-borne viral infection to 53 from May to date.

The health department data show that Karachi has seen the highest number of dengue cases in the province; 5,212 cases were reported in the city out of the total 7,380 cases recorded in the province in the month of October so far.

With over 13,000 cases, Karachi’s share in the total number of dengue cases reported this year (17,534) stands at 78 per cent. Forty-seven patients have died of the illness in the city since May.

In Karachi, Central district has seen the highest number of mortalities (20) followed by East (13), Korangi and South (four each), West (3), Malir (2) and Keamari (1).

The data also show that the daily dengue tally has dropped from 167 to 117 in 10 days.

According to experts, there are multiple reasons for the high incidence of dengue fever cases this year, including heavy monsoon rains and failure on the part of the government, community as well as individuals to take preventive measures. Fumigation drives, they say, benefit communities only when they are timely carried out.

They point out that it is not just dengue fever attracting concern these days, typhoid and malaria cases are also alarmingly high.

The latter has claimed 10 lives over the past three to four months in the province, which has seen 278,256 recorded cases of the disease this year. Forty-six per cent of these cases were reported in Hyderabad division with five deaths.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022