False alarm: 7-year-old girl does not have dengue fever

Had contracted the dengue virus 3 months ago, that was why she had tested positive for dengue: Hospital CEO.


Our Correspondent February 23, 2012

LAHORE: Maryam, the young girl who was admitted to a hospital on Wednesday and thought to have dengue fever, has typhoid.

Khwaja Salman Rafiq, the special assistant to the chief minister for health, said on Thursday that the necessary blood tests, conducted at the Jinnah Hospital, had confirmed the diagnosis.

According to a Health Department spokesperson she developed a fever 10 days ago and was taken to Hameed Latif Hospital where she tested positive for dengue and typhoid. Her platelet count, however, was 180,000.

Prof Javed Akram, the Jinnah Hospital chief executive officer, told reporters that Maryam had contracted the dengue virus three months ago and that was why she had tested positive for dengue. He said that Prof Faisal Masood, the Dengue Expert Advisory Group chairman, had examined the child and confirmed that she had typhoid and not dengue fever. She is now being treated for typhoid at the Jinnah Hospital.

Rafiq appealed to private hospitals to notify the Dengue Cell or the Health Department’s Dengue Experts Advisory Group if they come across any patient who has dengue fever symptoms. He said that no dengue-carrier mosquito larvae have been found in the province.

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