Two sisters exhibiting symptoms of dengue died in Haripur, health officials said on Tuesday. However no conclusions can be drawn until the National Institute of Health (NIH) finishes testing the blood samples sent to them, officials said.
Eight-year-old Yasmin Bibi was admitted to the Women and Children Hospital (WCH) three days back suffering from high fever and vomiting. Dr Nasir Khan, the child specialist on duty, ordered tests that failed to determine the cause of the fever.
World Health Organisation (WHO) officials in Haripur also collected Yasmin’s blood samples and sent them to the NIH in Islamabad.
When Yasmin’s condition worsened on the same day, she was referred to Ayub Medical College in Abbottabad, where she died. Her family said she was bleeding from her nose and mouth at the time of death.
The next morning, her four-year-old sister Anila was brought to the WCH exhibiting the same symptoms. She was referred to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, but died on the way.
On Monday, their seven-month-old cousin Kainat Bibi was also brought to the hospital with high fever. She was referred to Combined Military Hospital in Abbottabad, where she is under treatment.
District Health Information System Coordinator Dr Khalil Bangash said it was too early to determine if the two sisters had died from dengue. He said that although the district is at high risk for the virus, he was unaware of the cause of the deaths of the two sisters. “Both cases were not reported in the district but I will look into it,” he added.
He added during the last two months, over 40 blood samples of suspected cases were sent to NIH for tests. Of these, just four cases were declared dengue positive, all of whom survived.
Bangash, however, confirmed that the dengue-positive patients belonged to Khanpur belt of the district, where several people have been infected with the virus in the past five years. Haripur was marked by WHO as a high-risk zone for the disease.
Suspected dengue patient admitted to PIMS
A suspected dengue patient was admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on Monday. PIMS spokesperson Dr Waseem Khawaja said a 28-year-old woman was brought to the hospital with high fever. Tests conducted at a private lab found her to be infected with the dengue virus. However, the hospital’s laboratory had not yet confirmed anything, he added.
The NIH say they received blood samples of 4,607 suspected dengue patients in 2012. Of them, 691 were diagnosed with the disease. Of these 11 were reported from Islamabad: one from PIMS, two from Khan Research Laboratories, six from Polyclinic Hospital and two came directly to NIH.
*With additional reporting by Sehrish Wasif
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2012.
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