HYDERABAD, Nov 1 Six more patients of dengue fever were admitted to Civil Hospital Hyderabad (CHH) on Monday, one of them from Tando Mohammad Khan district and the others from different areas of Hyderabad city.

According to focal person of the hospital, Dr Rasheed, the patients included Fazal, 40, a resident of Tando Mohammad Khan; Saleem of Journalist Colony, Zeeshan of Hirabad, Asif of Pathan Colony), Farooq of the City College area and Rozina of Tilak Charhi.

Currently eight patients of dengue fever have been admitted to the hospital. Dr Rasheed said that 93 patients had been admitted to the hospital and transfused platelets since October 5.

The hospital's pathology laboratory now had only five platelet kits, he said, adding that a request had been sent for more kits to the provincial health department.

Meanwhile, an increase in dengue patients is making availability of platelets a big problem at CHH which has only one cell separator, a machine that separates platelets from blood.

The only other machine is available at the Diagnostic Research Laboratory (DRL) but the state-of-the-art laboratory does not offer its services free of charge.

Though the lab works under the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) and obviously built from public money its services come at a cost which is prohibitively unaffordable for the poor.

Established on the civil hospital's premises in November 2002, the DRL does not pay bills for the power it receives from the hospital. CHH MS Dr. Nawaz Abbasi confirms it.

Prof Manzoor Memon, head of LUMHS pathology laboratory who manages the DRL, said that he did not see any demand for platelets from patients because they were probably obtaining them from private laboratories.

Besides, at present the civil hospital is running short of kits used in preparation of platelets. Sindh health department had supplied around 120 kits to the hospital's pathology laboratory for their free of charge provision to patients.

Sources in the hospital said that by Sunday evening there were only seven to eight kits available at the lab. An indent had been sent to the health department for supply of 100 more kits, said the sources.

The only cell separator at the civil hospital's laboratory can not be run round the clock and there is only one man, Dr. Khalid, who can operate it. Nobody can run the machine in his absence.

Our correspondent adds from Larkana A suspected patient of dengue fever was admitted to the Chandka Medical College Hospital on Monday.

CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Zulfikar Siyal said though the doctors of Dadu district had referred Shahnawaz Lakhair, 20, resident of Mehar, as a confirmed case of dengue fever with 150,000 per cubic millimetre platelet count which did not suggest dengue fever, they had repeated tests to verify the case. Earlier, two patients of dengue fever namely Kashif and Anila had been admitted to the hospital and were discharged later.