Dengue alert: 8 patients hospitalised in Hyderabad

District govt of Hyderabad starts fumigation in different dengue-infested areas for the elimination of mosquitoes.

HYDERABAD: The number of dengue patients is increasing in Hyderabad as eight more patients have been admitted to Civil Hospital during the last 24 hours.

DDO Hyderabad Dr Ahmad Haider told express 24/7 that the total number of dengue patients in the district has reached 60.

He said 12 dengue patients are being treated at the Civil Hospital.

The district government of Hyderabad has started fumigation in different dengue-infested areas for the elimination of mosquitoes.

Dengue virus has so far claimed 16 lives in Sindh, with a total of 80 new cases emerging in the province.

The total number of positive cases in Sindh is reported to be about 1,668.

The provincial government gave Rs10 million to the Health Ministry to buy Rapid Antigen Kits which can detect the virus within six hours of testing.

This came as 65 patients were admitted in district hospitals, while 31 were admitted in civil hospitals of Hyderabad alone.

Meanwhile in Punjab, two people have died of dengue fever in Rahim Yar Khan.

Two residents of Mianwali were also admitted to the DHQ hospital with the disease.

Doctor blames Punjab government for understating dengue cases

The Punjab Health Department was blamed by speakers at a seminar on Tuesday for having failed miserably in controlling the outbreak of the dengue virus across the province and primarily in Lahore.

They called the outbreak the country’s worst epidemic, adding that healthcare officials had deliberately understated the number of patients affected and that number was increasing at an alarming rate. They said patients suffering from dengue were visiting both the private and public health facilities in the thousands as opposed to the numbers registered by the Health Department.

Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians president Dr Tariq Mahmood Mian, while addressing the seminar, said that the Health Department had concealed the number of dengue sufferers to mislead the Punjab government. He said the number of patients visiting private hospitals and clinics was many times higher than the figures registered by healthcare authorities and this was a highly condemnable act.

He said that currently 100,000 family physicians were running clinics across the province, including 10,000 in Lahore alone.