KARACHI, Oct 5: The growing number of dengue fatalities and confirmed cases is disturbing and warrants effective measures to overcome the menace on an urgent basis, doctors, professionals and other stakeholders in the health sector said on Friday.

They pointed out that the situation obtaining in Sindh, particularly Karachi, was becoming grave and could turn even worse than it was last year when it got almost out of control.

This year, cases of the viral haemorrhagic fever (VHF) or dengue fever started coming to various hospitals in February and continued to be reported through September. However, the situation and the constant calls from health professionals and medical organisations failed to persuade the authorities concerned to take concrete steps to combat the menace in an effective way.

Hospitals have now been attending quite a big number of cases, according to a source, who pointed out that it was only in late September when the Sindh health department felt the necessity of reactivating its dengue fever monitoring cell.

The cell was established last year after the prevalence of the deadly disease took the shape of an outbreak and claimed at least 13 lives in Karachi alone in the June-September period. A total of 315 suspected VHF patients were rushed to the government and private hospitals across the province and 115 of them were tested dengue positive.

According to the data provided by the dengue monitoring cell, 557 suspected VHF patients have been brought to various hospitals in the city between mid-August and October 5, 2007. Of them, 256 cases have been tested positive. The dengue fever has already claimed five lives during the period. Health circles, however, contest the official figure saying, the number was no less than seven and the deaths occurred over the past six weeks.

Experts stress that the data and information available with them were enough to convince the government and other stakeholders that the dengue fever was here to stay for years and, as such, there was a need for a constant and round-the-year monitoring, besides effective measures if the diseases had to be eliminated in a shortest possible time.

Hospitals continued to receive suspected dengue patients over the 24 hours ending at 3pm on Friday. As many as 14 new cases were admitted raising the tally of suspected or confirmed dengue patients to 132.