The scare continues: Dengue claims six more deaths
Six more deaths were reported on Thursday, with five in Lahore and one in Karachi, as dengue virus continued to instill panic across the country and experts, local and foreign, mulled over strategies to contain the virus.
Fresh cases in Lahore, Karachi
Five people died due to dengue in Lahore on Thursday, including a 22-year old girl named Hina Attique and Mayo Hospital employee Muhammad Ayub. The provincial health department did not confirm any deaths though.
(Read: Mud slinging : ‘Media exaggerating dengue threat to malign govt’)
During the last 24 hours, 521 cases of dengue were reported in Punjab, of which 501 were from Lahore, while 295 patients are under treatment in various hospitals, sources said.
Over 4,700 patients have recovered from the virus so far, sources added.
Meanwhile, seven more cases of dengue were reported in Karachi in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases reported in the province to 233, of which 206 have been from Karachi.
At least 40 cases have been confirmed in Karachi during the current month, while 24 are still being treated in hospitals, said Shakil Mallick, focal person for the dengue surveillance cell.
One death from dengue was reported on Thursday at the Aga Khan University Hospital while one fresh case was reported from Umer Kot in rural Sindh.
Separately, Young Doctors Association (YDA) Pakistan said that 21 private teaching hospitals of Lahore should reserve 50% of their beds for free treatment of dengue patients.
If 2,725 beds, out of a total of 5,500 beds in the 21 private teaching hospitals, are declared available for free treatment to the public, the load of patients in the government teaching hospitals would be shared, a YDA spokesperson said.
Rise of dengue
The first dengue case surfaced in Punjab in 2003 and the province has over 5,000 reported cases at present, said Secretary Health Punjab Jahanzeb Khan and Director-General Health Services Dr Mohammad Aslam Chaudhry while briefing a 12-member Sri Lankan dengue experts’ team at the Institute of Public Health, Lahore.
Most cases in the province have been reported in Lahore while Gulberg town, in the city, was the most affected area where 19% of all patients contracted the virus, they said. Three-quarters of all patients are between 15 and 50 years of age while 70% of all patients are male, they added.
Long-term planning
There are no shortcuts to dealing with the challenge of dengue virus and long-term planning is imperative, said the head of Sri Lankan team Dr Hasitha Tissera.
There is no country in the world which can claim to have completely eradicated the dengue virus but the situation can be controlled through preventive measures, proper attention by doctors and community participation, the experts said.
Participants of the meeting observed that there is a need to review the existing strategy regarding platelets and spray for curbing dengue virus and formed various technical and joint groups to evolve a comprehensive and collective strategy by the health department and the Sri Lankan team.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2011.
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We are in a very tough time, where we are attacked by enemy just not through their sponsored thugs in the government and outside the government, mercenaries, drones and others, rather now we are even they are putting us right in the middle of biological warfare. Dengue fever and its transporter (mosquito) has always been the favourite for the US's intelligence Agency.
And because we have no responsible government, that is why all of them are happening to us.
It's an outbreak like SARS or the food bacteria contamination in Europe. As for the Punjab government, they are active in bringing things under control and people in Punjab see that. The only thing is that others are trying to score cheap political points on an infectuous disease outbreak and secretly wishing that more innocent people die. I salute the efforts of the Punjab government to bring things under control in a very active way.