According to health circles, the number of more people getting affected by the virus is still going up. According to the available data, 2,063 patients have so far been admitted over the past four and a half months to the hospitals which have been providing information about the cases. However, the death toll in the Vdengue VHF/dengue-related cases stood at 30.
According to focal person for the Dengue Fever Cell of the Sindh health department, Dr Abdul Majid, some of the non-reporting hospitals had also started submitting data to the cell.
According to the data collected by 2pm on Wednesday, the number of dengue positive patients admitted to hospitals in Karachi since June last has risen to 673. Another 10 cases were reported from the interior Sindh, said Dr Majid, adding, that a total of 261 patients with suspected VHF/dengue were still admitted in 17 hospitals of Karachi.
He said that four new cases were reported from Hyderabad on Wednesday, while the total number of suspected VHF patients in interior Sindh was 23 as of Wednesday.
The position of in-house patients in the city hospitals is as follows: Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre: 38 (15 new), Abbasi Shaheed Hospital: 29(14 new), Liaquat National Hospital: 40 (six new), Civil Hospital Karachi: 20 (nine new), Dr Ziauddin Hospital: 22 (11 new), Aga Khan University Hospital: 32(three new), Bismillah Taqi Hospital: 10 (three new), National Institute of Child Health: 17 (two new), Baqai Hospital: 14 (two new), Zainul Abedein Hospital: three (two new), Patel Hospital: three (two new), Darul Shifa: 14(two new), Chiniot Hospital: 15(10 new), Karachi Adventist Hospital: 29 (no new), Zainab Punjwani Hospital: 17 (no new).
Meanwhile, the WHO Country Representative to Pakistan, Dr Khalif Bile Mohamud, who was in the city for a high level meeting on dengue fever issue on Wednesday, told Dawn that preventive measures, including improved sanitation conditions, were the only answer to this global phenomenon.
“We need to intensify the public cleanliness campaign to stop mosquitoes from breeding and carry out fumigation and fogging to eliminate mosquitoes and their breeding grounds,” he said.
He remarked that unless the solid waste removal system in urban areas was improved, there was hardly any chance for success in eliminating the habitat of mosquitoes. “Moreover, we need to ensure an effective surveillance, monitoring and diagnosis facilities,” he noted.
He called for proper surveillance of VHF/dengue suspected cases and urged the health care professionals to ensure proper netting of such patients during their stay in hospitals and recovery period. He stressed the need for more effective and sustainable vector control measures during the main dengue transmission season.
He also emphasised that healthcare providers and the people should be sensitised about the current dengue risk and personal protection measures, while enhanced surveillance of local diseases, epidemic preparedness and response capacities were vital to detect, prevent, control and treat dengue in the affected localities.
He said that WHO had started coordination with the federal government and was ready to extend all possible assistance and technical supports to the provincial and district governments towards the training the fogging teams and placing a task force to assess the nature, pace and elimination of dengue in Karachi and other parts of the country.
A senior expert on insects from Islamabad, Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, who was also in the city on Wednesday, said that there was a need to evaluate what had, so far, been done on the fogging front by the local government under its mosquito control programme.