KARACHI: A male patient died of dengue fever at a Sukkur hospital while another patient died of malaria at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Umerkot, raising the death toll from the vector-borne diseases to 36 and three, respectively, in the province, the health department stated on Wednesday.

According to the health department, a total of 387 cases of dengue fever were reported in the province on Tuesday. Of them, 253 cases were reported in Karachi followed by Hyderabad division (98), Mirpurkhas (27) and Sukkur division (three).

A total of 6,603 cases of dengue fever has so far been reported in the province in September alone. The total cases reported so far this year reached to 9,172.

In Karachi, 10 patients have died of dengue in district East, 16 in district Central, three in district South, two in district Malir and one each in Korangi and West districts.

A total of 4,942 malaria cases were reported in Sindh on Sept 28.

While the spike in cases of dengue and malaria in the province showed no significant decline, the municipal bodies in Karachi have claimed to have covered 60 to 70 per cent of the city in the ongoing fumigation drives that would continue till December.

Independent experts, however, doubted the overall government efforts and called for coordinated efforts for an effective prevention strategy.

The experts say the actual number of dengue-related deaths as well as positive cases in the metropolis are also much higher.

Only on Tuesday, Sindh reported its first deaths from malaria as two patients died in Sukkur.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2022