ATTOCK, Sept 23: Two cases of dengue fever have been detected at the District Headquarters Hospital here, it has been learnt.

Sources said five patients of a family hailing from the remote area of Basal village of Jand tehsil - Mohammad Ramzan, his wife Chandni Bibi, his grandson Farhad Ali and granddaughters Rabia and Aysha – were admitted to the DHQ hospital on September 20 with the complaints of high fever accompanied by severe headache, pain in eyes and vomiting.

The hospital authorities sent blood samples of the patients to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad for laboratory test which informed the health department Attock on Tuesday that the two sisters – 15 year-old Rabia and Aysha, 20, - were tested positive while reports of the remaining three patients were negative. When contacted, medical superintendent DHQ hospital Dr Khalid Mehmood Khan confirmed the report and said both the patients had been shifted to the isolation ward.

He said dengue fever was actually a self-limiting viral disease and, therefore, supportive treatment was being provided to both the patients. He claimed that the condition of the patients was stable as their treatment had already been started after their admission.

Dengue fever is caused by a specific type of mosquito that bites only during daytime, especially during sunrise and sunset, while the breeding takes place only in containers, drums and buckets of clean water, Dr Khan said.