KARACHI, July 3: After a gap of about six months, cases of viral haemorrhagic fever have begun arriving in city hospitals.

A doctor from a private hospital said on Tuesday that at least two patients suspected to be suffering from VHF had died during the past three weeks. The last of the two deaths occurred only a couple of days back, the doctor said, adding that both patients were tested positive for dengue fever.

The doctor said that a number of VHF patients had started reporting at the private hospital about three to four weeks back and a majority of them left the hospital after treatment. However, the episodes could not be reported to the provincial cell on VHF and dengue fever.

Another doctor said the patients who suffered from the disease were local residents. The figure of dengue-related cases would surely go up as the temperature came down after rains, the doctor added.

After the dengue outbreak in 2006, about 4,600 patients were admitted to Karachi hospitals and about 140 to hospitals in the interior of Sindh, and bout 1,570 of them were tested positive for dengue virus till December 15. About 50 dengue-related deaths were reported in Karachi alone.—M.A.