PESHAWAR, Sept 8: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has said that dengue fever situation is under control and asked the people to adopt protective measures against mosquito bites to stay safe from the disease.

“There is no threat of spread of dengue fever and the disease can be effectively prevented through measures like using impregnated net and avoiding unscreened blood transfusion,” said Prof Mukhtiar Zaman Afridi, head of the pulmonology ward of the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

Talking to this correspondent, he said that the patients with dengue fever symptoms should not be necessarily isolated from other patients or the people.

“The disease does not spread through secretions, coughing, sneezing or spitting, but the patients should be safeguarded against mosquito bites,” Prof Mukhtiar said, adding that when a mosquito bites an infected person, it becomes a carrier of the virus and the same mosquito can transmit the infection to other humans through bites.

Seven people died of the dengue fever last year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while three deaths have been reported this year so far.

Special Secretary Health Prof Noorul Iman said that prevention of dengue was similar to that of malaria fever because both were mosquito-borne ailments.

The illness is clinically indistinguishable from influenza, measles or rubella, and can cause problems only in five per cent of the victims, he said.