PESHAWAR, Nov 2: Dengue fever is contracted only by the bite of an infected mosquito and not by human contact, a doctor said here on Thursday. NWFP Infectious Diseases Society President Dr Noorul Iman said at a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club said only cases of the diseases with bleeding manifestations should be sent to the teaching hospitals.

He said that if basic principles of public health and sanitation were followed there would be no fear of an epidemic.

Most patients of the fever got better with symptomatic treatment, he said.

He said one to two per cent of patients developed the worst form of the disease, the dengue haemorrhagic fever. Only those patients required hospitalisation and aggressive supportive therapy, he said.

He said the patients didn’t need to be isolated.

The society’s senior vice-president Dr Janbaz Afridi said the disease was not new but it had probably spread to Pakistan because of unscreened air travel.

The patients recovered within two weeks and there was about one per cent chance of death by the disease, he said.

Te society’s general secretary said there was need for insecticide spray on regular basis in the country. He said the government should take steps to spread awareness about the disease.