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Tuesday May 07, 2024

‘Dengue fever outbreak may hit upcountry in next two weeks’

By Muhammad Qasim
September 24, 2018

Rawalpindi: A dengue fever outbreak may hit population in this region of the country within next two weeks or so as the number of patients being reported from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi along with adjoining areas is on the rise and all risk factors considered important for an outbreak of the infection are in existence.

It is important that infected travellers or incidences of infection among natives is one of the main risk factor for dengue fever outbreak and the allied hospitals in town have already been receiving significant number of patients from AJK and Khyber Pakhtunkhwah along with natives from Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The peak season for dengue fever transmission in the region starts after the middle of September and data collected by ‘The News’ in last three weeks reveals that the number of confirmed patients of dengue fever is gradually on the rise. In the first two weeks of September, the allied hospitals received a total of 21 confirmed patients of the infection while in the third week of this month; as many as 19 patients were tested positive at the two teaching hospitals in town.

A good number of confirmed dengue fever patients have already been reported from Rawalpindi and Islamabad and it is time for the concerned health authorities to take adequate measures to check spread of the infection, said a top health official serving at Holy Family Hospital that has already discharged well over 500 patients of dengue fever including 55 confirmed patients.

Pleading anonymity, he said the spread of dengue fever is slower at present but if proper preventive measures are not taken by all stakeholders well in time, a possible outbreak may hit population in the next two weeks.

It is worth mentioning here that during the last 12 years, the population in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi faced the worst ever dengue fever outbreak in 205 and 2016 with more than 4500 confirmed patients reported at the public sector hospitals of the twin cities in 2015 and over 4000 cases in 2016.

After the most severe outbreaks of the infection in 2015 and 2016, the health experts stressed on the need of removal of heaps of garbage and unnecessary water accumulations though the concerned government authorities seemed to have paid no heed to the opinion and the solid waste management remained poor throughout the year from January to date and it is evident from the existing situation as one can witness heaps of garbage and rubbish dumps on a number of points in district Rawalpindi and in rural areas of the federal capital.

According to Additional District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani, the female ‘aedes’ mosquitoes, the vector that causes dengue fever carry one of the four types of dengue virus from the dengue patient to the healthy person and transmit the disease.

He explained that usually, the dengue fever vector lay the first eggs of the year at the beginning of May and the mosquito density is maximal in early July, late August and September and the dengue fever cases increase proportionally with the mosquitoes’ density.