Islamabad
The dengue fever outbreak that proved to be the most severe in nature in the history of the federal capital this year with report of well over 2,800 confirmed cases of the infection and at least three deaths has come to an end after the setting in of winter.
Data collected by ‘The News’ on Friday has revealed that in last five days, a total of eight patients of the infection have been tested positive for dengue fever from the federal capital while to date, a total of 2806 confirmed patients have been reported this year. The infection claimed at least three lives in the federal capital this year.
It is important that the dengue fever outbreak this year set a new record of most cases of the infection in one year in the federal capital along with most cases in a single year as compared to the total number of dengue fever patients reported in the previous 10 years combined.
It is also worth mentioning here that in the previous 10 years, the dengue fever spread came to its seasonal close after the first week of November while this year, as many as 507 confirmed cases of the infection were reported in November in Islamabad.
The outbreak that was the most severe in nature this year in the federal capital has come to an end and for the last one week, only one to two patients were being reported per day, said Additional District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Friday.
He said out of a total 2806 confirmed patients of the infection so far reported from the federal capital, as many as 2455 are residents of Islamabad rural areas while 294 cases were reported from Islamabad urban.
He added that another 38 cases reported in hospitals in Islamabad were residents of Rawalpindi while as many as 19 patients were taken to Islamabad hospitals from other districts of the country.
He added the need of the time is to devise a fool proof strategy to deal with the incidence of dengue fever in the coming year and for that, a lot is needed to be done to proper management of solid waste in the rural areas of the federal capital.