KARACHI, Oct 23: Another patient died on Tuesday of dengue fever, taking the overall death toll from the mosquito-borne disease to 14 over the past seven months.
About 50 fresh patients afflicted with the mosquito-borne disease were rushed to nine government and private hospitals in the city.
The patients, having reported to various hospitals since mid-September, also included those treated at the Pakistan Navy’s hospital PNS Shifa, where a private patient who had tested positive for dengue died on Tuesday morning.
However, the Sindh health department’s dengue monitoring cell confirmed only 11 deaths, including six at the Liaquat National Hospital, two each at the Aga Khan University Hospital and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and one at the Civil Hospital Karachi.
When contacted on Tuesday, Commander Salman Ali of the ISPR (Navy) said that during the current dengue season PNS Shifa received about 171 dengue fever patients, including men and women of different ages, belonging to the services and civil sectors, out of which six were still under treatment.
Only one of the patients -- a local resident -- who was brought to the navy hospital in an acute condition some time back, failed to survive and expired on Oct 23, he noted.
On the other hand, according to the provincial dengue monitoring cell, the number of patients suspected of suffering from viral haemorrhagic fever or dengue fever rose from 1,188 on Oct 22 to 1,527 on Tuesday. Of these cases 534 have been tested positive for dengue.
According to statistics maintained by the cell, 110 patients were still registered as in-house patients at nine city hospitals. A maximum of 19 fresh dengue patients were brought to the AKUH, followed by 12 to Dr Ziauddin Hospital.
An official concerned said that the considerable increase in the number of dengue patients recorded so far could be for two reasons: either coordination between the cell and hospitals has increased or some of the hospitals, which failed to pass on the details after the Oct 18 bomb blasts, had given an accumulated figure now.
Experts still emphasise that the Sindh government and the city government should improve their working further on the monitoring, surveillance and preventive sides and involve more scientific methods in their campaign against dengue and the mosquitoes that spread it.
An expert from a public sector university said that the government should come up with concrete measures, involving academia as well, so that the dengue virus could be eradicated. “There is a need to take into consideration the ecology and hygiene of individuals as well,” he added.
Talking to Dawn, the CDGK’s District Officer for Municipal Public Health Dr Shaukat Zaman said that fumigation in schools and hospitals, which had been delayed due to the law and order situation in the city, would be initiated in a week’s time.
Numbers ‘not disturbing’
He was of the view that current data related to dengue fever was not very disturbing if one took into consideration the figures of previous years, and the situation had improved only due to the concerted efforts of the CDGK.
“In addition to the routine fumigation carried out in various towns, the CDGK’s health department has now planned fumigation at public places and offices as well,” he said.
He said that the Sindh malaria control directorate had recently handed over about 5,000 medicated bed-nets to the city government for keeping dengue-affected patients in isolation and to eliminate the chances of any contact between a dengue-hit patient and a mosquito, which could become a virus carrier.