Dengue fever continues to haunt population despite fall in mercury

Rawalpindi: The population in Rawalpindi district is still being haunted by dengue fever despite a significant fall in mercury as in the last four days 90 patients have been tested positive from the district.

It was expected that after the fall in mercury, there would be a decline in the number of dengue fever cases but still the three teaching hospitals in the town are receiving well over 30 patients of dengue fever per day on average.

Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that to date, three allied hospitals have received well over 2370 confirmed dengue fever patients from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and adjoining districts. It is, however, important that the infection has so far claimed no life.

The data also revealed that around 23 patients have been confirmed positive for dengue fever per day on average from the district for the last four days. It is worth mentioning here that not more than 160 individuals were tested positive for dengue from Rawalpindi in the previous 10 days -- from October 18 to 27 -- recording an average of around 16 patients per day.

On Friday, as many as 32 patients belonging to the district were undergoing treatment at different healthcare setups in the town including the three teaching hospitals. In the last 24 hours, as many as 15 new cases have been reported from the district.

Health experts say that after a fall in temperature, majority of the people stops using fans particularly in the evening, night and at dawn that causes an increase in the number of cases of mosquito-bites. In the existing weather conditions, mosquitoes move to the indoor places or in other words in the bedrooms and kitchens where they can rest in corners behind the curtains or furniture to rest and bite.

According to the experts, it is time for individuals to take extraordinary measures to avoid mosquito bites and eliminate all possible breeding sites from homes and offices. It has been observed that during the previous dengue fever outbreaks, after a fall in temperature at the end of October or in the beginning of November, a surge in the number of dengue fever cases was reported in the region.

Studies reveal that the biting ability and physiological functions of ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that causes dengue fever, are affected by the fall in temperature particularly below 13 degree centigrade at which they are not able to bite because of weak energy in joints that do not let them make a firm grip and mount on the body of a person for sucking blood.

However, the temperature inside homes, offices, buses, vans and cars do not fall below 13 degree Celsius generally at the time of setting in of winter.