PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday recorded 99 fresh dengue cases taking the province-wide tally of infections to 1,573 this year so far.

The health department reported that 669 cases had been confirmed during the current month, and 59 patients were admitted to hospitals. It said 213 patients had so far been hospitalised, including 18 during the last 24 hours.

The report said the number of active cases was 576, while 995 patients had recovered and released from isolation.

It said that Peshawar continued to record bulk of cases as 535 infections had so far been diagnosed so far, whereas Abbottabad had 156 infections, Mansehra 132, Hangu 131 and Nowshera 115. The report said the vector-borne disease was widespread as cases were being reported from all districts.

Meanwhile, though the authorities continue to carry out spray to eliminate mosquitoes, the carrier and transmitters of the virus, standing water pools in many localities has been a daunting challenge for them.

The health department has asked people to prevent accumulation of water in their neighbourhoods and avoid storage of water in uncovered utensils to deny breeding spots to mosquitoes.

Officials at the health department said they had distributed 400,000 impregnated bed nets in the endemic areas and the infected people had been advised to escape mosquito bites. They said the department had deployed lady health workers throughout the province, especially in hotspot areas, to prevail upon the women against storing water inside their houses and educating them on how to eliminate larvae.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024