KARACHI, Oct 29: Two deaths due to dengue fever were on Monday reported to the provincial monitoring cell by two private hospitals, bringing the official death toll to 13 while the number of suspected cases stood at 1,735 by October 23.

However, the monitoring cell is yet to confirm a recent suspected dengue death at PNS Shifa and two additional dengue fatalities reported by private hospitals during the last couple of months. Furthermore, the nearly two thousand suspected cases of dengue fever do not include the 171 patients received under suspicion of the illness and treated at PNS Shifa up to the end of last week.

According to the monitoring cell’s data, nine of the people confirmed to have died of the hemorrhagic fever were women aged between 20 and 70 years.

Dr Shakeel Mullick, deputy secretary of the Sindh Health Department and in charge of the provincial dengue monitoring cell, told Dawn that one of the reported fatalities was that of a 38-year-old woman from PECHS who expired at the Liaquat National Hospital during the 24 hours ending at 3pm on Monday. The other confirmed dengue death was reported by Baqai Hospital, where a 20-year-old woman died on October 23.

Dr Mullick added that his cell had also been informed about the admission of a suspected dengue case at the Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad-Jamshoro. This is the first case to have been reported from the interior of Sindh during the current spell of the mosquito-borne virus.

Meanwhile, 38 new patients suspected to be suffering from dengue fever were admitted to seven government and private hospitals in Karachi. Dr Ziauddin Hospital alone received 20 cases recently, bringing the number of suspected cases brought there to 658 during the current spell. Bismillah Taqi Hospital has so far received 291 patients while the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and the Aga Khan University Hospital have received 244 and 186 patients respectively.

Of the officially confirmed deaths, the first fatality took place on September 2 when a 21-year-old housewife, a resident of Malir who had tested positive for dengue fever, expired at the Liaquat National Hospital. By October 28, this hospital had reported seven dengue-related deaths, four men and three women.

Over a span of 20 days, the Aga Khan University Hospital reported two deaths, women in their mid-twenties who lived in the DHA and Kharadar respectively. The JPMC reported the deaths of two women on October 8, while the Civil Hospital Karachi reported the death of a 60-year-old woman who arrived from Balochistan for treatment on October 16.

PNS Shifa confirmed the death of a dengue patient on October 23. The last confirmed dengue death was reported from AKU Hospital on October 3.

Of the 1,735 cases reported up to October 23, 598 patients tested positive to dengue fever. The monitoring cell informed Dawn that 104 patients were undergoing in-house treatment at eight hospitals.