‘Number of dengue patients decreasing’

40 per cent fewer fever patients reported at Mayo Hospital.

LAHORE:

Health Department Director General Dr Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry said on Friday the number of dengue fever patients coming to city hospitals declining.

Earlier, King Edward Medical University Vice Chancellor Dr Asad Aslam said the number of fever patients visiting Mayo Hospital this week was 40 per cent over less than last week.

DG Chaudhry said the government was however concerned about the number of people dying from dengue hemorrhagic fever and that experts had been directed to take notice of the situation.

He said experts from Indonesia were assisting doctors at high dependency units set up at all teaching hospitals. He was speaking at a press conference at committee room. Additional Information Secretary Tahir Raza Hamdani, KEMU VC Prof Dr Asad Aslam and Health Information Management System Director Dr Anwar Janjua were also present.

Dr Chaudhry said 10 seminars had been organised in various towns to raise awareness about dengue fever and preventive measures over the last 24 hours. He further said 11,600 pamphlets with literature on dengue prevention had been distributed in 2,780 houses sprayed in 43 union councils.

He said so far 21,107 blood tests had been carried out at 10 centres set up in the city.

Facebook campaign

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday launched provincial government’s Facebook page on dengue fever prevention measures in a ceremony at the University of Lahore. Besides preventive measures, the page titled Shahbaz Sharif Anti-Dengue Community would contain information on steps taken by the provincial government to curb the disease.

Nine more die

Nine more people died of dengue fever in the province over the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 186 in Punjab and 168 in Lahore. As many as 312 people were diagnosed with dengue fever over the last 24 hours, of which 258 were in Lahore. The number of dengue fever patients has thus risen to 14,760, of which 12,761 have been in Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2011.