PESHAWAR: Amid declining infections after dip in temperature, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday recorded fourth death from dengue haemorrhagic fever, making the overall tally of mortalities due to the vector-borne ailment four in the current year.

According to dengue situation report released by Integrated Diseases Surveillance and Response System (IDSRS) of health department, after detection of 18 new dengue cases during the last 24 hours, the province-wide number of infected persons reached 5,978.

It said that seven more patients were admitted to hospitals, bringing the total number of current hospitalisations due to the mosquito-borne sickness to 12. It said that so far, the disease sent 2,063 people to hospitals while of the total diagnosed patients, 5,702 had already recovered and 272 were still active patients.

So far, only four persons, including two in Mardan and one each in Lakki Marwat and North Waziristan, have died of the infection in the province.

Cases of the disease begin to decrease as temperature dips

However, physicians at Peshawar-based hospitals told this scribe that the number of mortalities due to the disease might be higher than that recorded by health department. “More people have died of dengue in their homes and they are not recorded. People don’t go to hospitals and instead rely on the treatment offered by street-based medical practitioners,” a senior physician said.

He said that quacks in Peshawar and elsewhere in the province thrived on dengue during peak months of September and October. They mistreated patients with a lot of dextrose and normal saline drips that often deteriorated the condition of recipients, he said. “Hospitals, especially medical teaching institutions, don’t offer free testing services and only offer free medication to the hospitalised dengue patients for whom they have established isolation wards,” he added.

A young person, who recovered from dengue in Sufaid Dheri locality of Peshawar, told Dawn that people avoided visiting hospitals where they were advised battery of investigations costing more than Rs4,000 in normal circumstances. “In private clinics, located in the neighbourhood, patients receive treatment within Rs1,000, therefore, they visit such clinics,” he added.

Officials, meanwhile say that downtrend trend in infections has started with slump in temperature but cases will still emerge as the people, who have been bitten by infected mosquitoes, will be tested positive after 10 to 12 days, the incubation period of the disease.

Contrary to the past, when Peshawar remained thick with dengue cases, this year was an exception because Charsadda district witnessed violent outbreak of the disease, infecting 1,112 people in a few union councils and Kohat stayed distant second in terms of infections with 762 patients.

Peshawar reported 690 dengue cases, Mardan 520, Mansehra 444, Haripur 424, Dir Lower 211, Dera Ismail Khan 201, Swabi 191, Nowshera 161, Abbottabad 146, Hangu 145, Malakand 117, Lakki Marwat 111 and Bajaur recorded 109 dengue cases.

The disease is widespread and except Kohistan Upper, Kolai Palas, Lower and Central Kurram and Torghar, cases have been diagnosed positive in all districts.

Officials associated with anti-dengue efforts, say that every year cases of the disease start emerging from April slightly and jump in August, September and October and get down in November with the onset of winter when mosquitoes, the transmitters and carrier of dengue virus, cannot survive but the same cycle re-starts next year.

They say that there is no durable strategy to get away with production of mosquitoes because people store water in uncovered utensils, providing breeding space to mosquitoes. “Additionally, standing water pool, especially after rain, continues to breed mosquitoes. Every year, government allocates sizeable amount to implement Dengue Action Plan but the causative agents continue to stay,” officials add.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2025