Two more die as dengue contagion spreads to 10 K-P districts

Virus has claimed 15 lives so far across the province

PESHAWAR: The dengue outbreak continues to wreak havoc across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) as two more patients lost their battle against the virus on Monday.

With two more deaths, the total death toll from the disease has risen to 15. Most of these deaths were reported from Peshawar and Khyber Agency.

Initially, dengue cases were only reported from the provincial capital. However, the virus has now spread to districts in central and Northern parts of the province.  So far, not even a single case has emerged from any of the southern districts of the province.

According to details, a total of 1,338 people were reported to have been carrying the virus in Peshawar, followed by 110 in Mardan and 36 from Buner. However, 15 patients from Mansehra, six from Swabi, five from Malakand, two patients each from Haripur and Abbottabad districts showed signs of the virus.

Official documents of the provincial health department, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, read that around 1,558 people were screened for the dengue virus across ten districts. Of these, 292 people were tested positive with 252 hailing from Peshawar.

The report further read that two patients from Abbottabad, one from Haripur, eight from Mansehra, three from Buner, two from Swabi and 20 cases from the Mardan district were tested positive.

A total of 135 dengue patients were admitted to different health facilities within the past 24 hours while 55 of them were successfully treated and discharged, it stated. Officials of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) stated that the virus has infected a kid from Bara Tehsil of the tribal belt, adding that the kid is being given medical treatment.

A total of seven cases have so far been reported from Khyber agency, with one of them belonging to Darra Adam Khel.

Meanwhile, around 1,200 people with gastro complaints visited different health facilities across the provincial capital, with majority of them going to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH).

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2017.