KARACHI: The largest tertiary-care institution of Sindh, Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), has been facing a shortage of dengue fever detection kits for a week when the province, including megacity Karachi, is in the grip of this mosquito-borne disease.

Sources at the central lab of the CHK told PPI that the detection kits were not available for a week and the matter was brought to the notice of the CHK medical superintendent as well as the authorities concerned of the health department. Patients are being referred to private labs for tests of dengue.

A large number of panicked people are visiting the hospital for dengue tests every day. The number of dengue cases is increasing day by day in Karachi, but dengue fever detection kits are not available even in the major healthcare institution of the province.

When contacted, Sindh Prevention & Control Prog­ramme for Dengue manager Dr Meh­mood Iqbal Memon said the programme administration was providing kits to high-risk area hospitals from its “limited resources”, and it was the responsibility of teaching institutions to arrange kits from their hospital funds.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2019