PESHAWAR: Two people have died of dengue fever in Abbottabad this week amid rise in overall cases of the ailment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A weekly report by the health department stated that October recorded the highest number of dengue cases.
The province has recorded 3,671 dengue cases this year so far, according to the report released by Integrated Diseases Surveillance and Response System (IDS&RS) at directorate-general health services.
It said that Kohat topped the list with 2,319 patients, followed by Peshawar with 500, Bannu with 159, Khyber with 120, Haripur with 102, Abbottabad with 71, Charsadda with 64, Karak with 39, Mansehra with 38, Nowshera with 36, Dera Ismail Khan with 31, Lakki Marwat with 30, Swabi with 28 and Bajaur with 25. It added that 74 new patients were diagnosed in KP during the last 24 hours.
The infection is widespread but the mainstay of the virus remains Kohat, which has recorded 75 cases in October, the high-risk month for the mosquito-borne disease. Dengue fever is a recurring public health issue in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, mostly infecting people in Peshawar except the current and last year when Charsadda and Kohat surpassed the provincial capital in terms of cases.
KP registered 3,671 patients in current year
Health department has been urging coordination by line departments to eliminate breeding spots for mosquitoes, the carriers and transmitters of dengue virus.
The department had dispatched special teams to affected areas that found larvae at several spots. The larvae have been cleared chemically but the issue persists as standing water provides suitable condition for production of mosquitoes.
The vector-borne disease starts slightly in January but its cases increase from July to October after dip in temperature to a level not favourable for mosquitoes. From January to May this year, the province detected 115 patients, recorded 90 cases in June, 111 in July, 573 in August, 1,691 in September and 1,091 till Oct 15.
Officials said that the campaign along with doing away with stagnant water pools in Kohat and other districts should be levelled in the high-intensity month.
The IDS&RS report said that there were 134 active cases in the province. The government has been issuing an annual dengue action plan. Work on the plan was started early in January that prevented cases in several districts, which recorded more infections previously, because of coordination of all departments.
However, in many districts, the coordination among departments wasn’t up to a desired level and it was the main reason for increase in cases in dengue-hit areas. Unwillingness by medical teaching institutions (MTIs) to respond to requests of health department for sharing line-list of dengue infected people in Peshawar was the main challenge, experts said.
They said that Peshawar always saw more dengue cases as the disease was endemic in at least 15 villages that were hit by severe outbreak, resulting in 70 deaths and hospitalisation of 50,000 others in the past.
Experts said that public awareness had been increased because the disease occurred every year and people knew its causes and preventive measures. “People avoid mosquito bites and use repellents but they still store water in uncovered utensils and pots as they don’t have continuous power supply. People switch on water machines or hand pumps to have water,” they added.
They said that power outages had been the big issue that hampered prevention of dengue cases. “The areas with smooth water flow don’t record dengue cases because people there don’t need to store water. However, most people in different areas don’t have uninterrupted supply of electricity. The ongoing year is better than last year when KP reported four deaths due to dengue and more than 6,000 cases,” they said.
Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2026
