KARACHI, Jan 27: The dengue surveillance cell of the Sindh health department on Tuesday confirmed

that an elderly patient who tested positive for the much-dreaded dengue fever died in a private hospital on Monday.

The provincial coordinator for the Dengue Surveillance Cell, Dr Shakeel A. Mullick, told Dawn that the first dengue death of the year was reported at Dr Ziauddin Hospital Karachi.

The patient, a 50-year-old man, a resident of Keamari, was admitted to the hospital on Dec 27 with the symptoms of dengue fever, he said.

He added that the death took place on Jan 26.

He said that patients suspected to be suffering from dengue fever continued to arrive in government and private hospitals in 2009 too and so far 27 patients had been admitted to four hospitals, of whom 13 had been tested positive for dengue.

The pace of reporting of such patients was low, but there was a need to take all preventive measures against the disease in the city, he said.

Last year, over 1,500 patients were admitted for being suspected to be dengue-infected, while about 35 per cent were tested positive for dengue and five could not survive the disease, caused by a special type of mosquitoes that transmit the dengue virus and become active largely in rain and high temperatures.—Mukhtar Alam