HARIPUR, Oct 12: Confirming the prevalence of dengue virus in Haripur district, The National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has declared blood samples of 19 patients as dengue positive, while nine suspected dengue patients are under observation at the district headquarters hospital, official sources told Dawn here on Tuesday.

Health department officials say that all the dengue positive patients are reported to be out of danger and discharged from the hospital. However, independent sources claimed that the endemic disease had claimed six lives in the district during the last two weeks.

According to Dr Bilal, district coordinator health information, following initial tests of dozens of patients at different health facilities of the district, the office of executive district officer (Health) had sent 132 blood samples to the NIH for dengue test till October 6. He said that 19 of these samples were found dengue positive and the infected patients also included five women and a minor.

Dr Bilal said that only nine patients with high fever and related symptoms were under observation at the DHQ hospital and over 100 suspects registered with the health department had been discharged after treatment. He declined to confirm that any of the dengue positive patients had died in Haripur.

Answering a question, he said that 10 dengue-related deaths had so far been reported from across Hazara division, but it was not clear if any of the deceased belonged to Haripur district.

In reply to a question, Dr Bilal said that his department had almost completed the anti-mosquito fog spray in all villages of the district. He said that local health authorities had also started contacting people of different villages for their cooperation in house-to-house spray.

The health department would provide pumps and anti-mosquito poison to volunteers for spray in the houses, he said.

Dr Bilal advised people to avoid self-medication after the onset of high fever and dengue symptoms. He sought people’s cooperation against the killer virus.