KARACHI, Oct 20: As a number of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever cases are yet to be documented, the Sindh health department recorded 52 fresh arrivals of dengue/VHF patients at nine government and private hospitals on Friday.

A patient, Khurram Khanzada, 30, died in ward-6 of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Friday. He was a suspected case of VHF.

According to data collected and updated by the focal person for the dengue fever cell, Sindh, at 2pm gave to understand that the numbers of new admissions and discharged patients remained almost the same. Five of the hospitals in question discharged 51 patients.

Since June, 2006, a total of 1,113 patients have been admitted at 10 government and private hospitals in the city, out of which 170 are still under treatment at hospitals, while 21 persons, including some dengue positive patients, died due to mosquito-borne disease at six hospitals.

A maximum six patients died at the Aga Khan University Hospital during the last four months, while the last death of a dengue positive patient, Lal Bibi, 8, occurred at the National Institute of Child Health on October 16.

According to Dr Abdul Majid, the focal person, the number of patients admitted during the last four months came on Friday as 359 at the Liaquat National Hospital, followed by AKUH (221), Dr Ziauddin Hospital (159), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (132), Civil Hospital Karachi (86), Bismillah Taqee Hospital (54), Baqai Hospital (38), Hamid Hospital Quaidabad (36), NICH (19) and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (9).

Dr Majid said that a maximum of 52 patients were still admitted at the LNH, while another 23 at the AKUH, 28 at ZU, 27 at JPMC and the remaining 40 at other six hospitals.

As many as 14 new patients with the history of high grade fever, bleeding and pain were brought on Friday at LNH, 13 at JPMC and 9 at AKUH. Another 16 patients were admitted at six different hospitals.

To a question, Dr Majid said that since a dengue cell had been established by the government, now hospitals, big or small both in the private and public sectors, should report the VHF and dengue cases handled by them to the cell.

Meanwhile, a doctor from Hill Park General Hospital said that isolation rooms had been set up on the third floor of the hospital where patients afflicted by mosquito-borne disease were given treatment.

The doctor said that during the last one week 10-12 patients were admitted to the hospital with history of high grade fever, out of which 2 or 3 were confirmed as dengue positive cases. However, patients admitted at the hospitals for dengue fever have been responding to treatment positively and as such no death has so far, the doctor added.

Another doctor at the same hospital said that at least four patients were under his treatment, out of which one was tested dengue positive on Thursday. The blood samples are sent to a private university hospital for laboratory analysis, he added.

Experts say that the only solution to the dengue menace was to locate the breeding places of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in fresh water, and destroy them through fogging, but residents in various areas expressed their dissatisfaction over the efforts made by the local and provincial governments so far.

A relative of two patients, father and daughter, afflicted with mosquito-borne diseases and treated at a private hospital, Syed Anwar Ali reacted, saying Karachi had become a breeding ground for mosquitoes with dirty pools of stagnant water and filthy conditions.

He urged the city government to tackle the matter and ensure a city-wide fumigation drive as the delay on its part had already resulted in loss of lives in the city. Doubting about any aerial spraying against mosquitoes in near future, Mr Ali said the need of the hour was street to street spraying with particular stress on slums and shanty towns.

However, a senior official of the provincial health department said that the number of dengue or VHF cases was declining now and the number of reported cases would come down significantly by the next month.

Announcing the outbreak of dengue as an epidemic would not work as what needed was to create more awareness, the official added, saying that people should take precautionary measures as well.

Apprehending that the dengue menace was here to stay in the city, some importers and marketers of diagnostic reagents and kits for use in diagnostic labs said that if the government removed the import taxes on reagents the cost of the dengue tests could come down by at least 25 per cent.

Since almost all reagents are imported and to which sales and income taxes are also added there is a need to reduce the cost of all such lab products, so that patients suffering from dengue could be provided some monetary relief, added the importers.

Minister fears more dengue deaths

KARACHI, Oct 20: Sindh Health Minister Syed Sardar Ahmed on Friday feared more deaths due to dengue fever if precautionary measures were not taken by citizens to save themselves from mosquitoes.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club, he said that 99 per cent cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever in Sindh were reported in Karachi so the people of metropolis should take extraordinary precautionary measures to deal with the situation.

“There is no treatment available for dengue hemorrhagic fever and so precaution remains the only remedy. If a person feels high fever, extreme headache, rashes, pain in joints and other symptoms, he should get himself tested for dengue fever,” he advised.

According to him, the hospitals in Sindh received 1,115 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever so far, of which 23 died including 20 in Karachi.—PPI