Negligence: Eight new dengue cases reported

The patients’ toll is 836 in the city so far this year.

KARACHI:

Eight more dengue viral fever cases were reported in Karachi on Friday, increasing the patients’ toll to 836 in the city so far this year, said Dengue Surveillance Cell Sindh’s focal person, Dr M Shakeel Aamir Mullick.

The focal person said that a total of 874 dengue cases have been reported in Sindh since January 2013, out of which, 836 were reported in Karachi and 38 in rest of the province. Ten dengue patients have died in Karachi this year while 24 patients were still admitted to different hospitals. Two new cases were also detected in Hyderabad.

Experts on dengue in the city are not satisfied with the steps taken by the health department to control the viral fever. “The official figures are not correct. Eight new patients of dengue and viral hemorrhagic fever come to a hospital every single day,” said a health expert.

“The government should take dengue as a disaster if it wants to control it,” said consultant haematologist Dr Saqib Hussain Ansari.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2013.