Dengue claims life of young woman in Karachi

Dengue claimed another life in Sindh during the last 24 hours raising the ongoing year’s death toll due to the vector-borne disease to 26, the health department said on Sunday. The health department also stated that the province had started reporting a decline in new infections.

Sindh Health Secretary Rehan Baloch said a 19-year-old woman from the Korangi area of Karachi, who was admitted to the Sindh Infectious Disease Control Hospital on November 8 after contracting dengue, passed away on Sunday.

He said that although the loss of life remained a concern, the overall number of daily cases was showing a downward trend. A total of 3,278 dengue tests were conducted across Sindh during the past 24 hours, of which 727 were confirmed positive.

A total of 1,919 tests were carried out in Karachi for dengue, of which 269 cases were confirmed. In Hyderabad, 1,359 tests were carried out that confirmed 458 dengue cases. The health secretary said 103 new dengue patients were admitted to government hospitals across the province while 72 new patients were received by private hospitals. He added that 58 patients recovered and were discharged from public hospitals, while 92 others recovered from private facilities.

Baloch said that so far 6,708 people had tested positive for dengue this month, taking the total number of confirmed cases this year to 12,284. At present, 271 dengue patients were admitted to public hospitals and 171 were under treatment at private facilities across Sindh.

He said 987 beds had been reserved for dengue patients in government hospitals, including 256 in Karachi, 165 in Hyderabad and 566 in other districts. Private hospitals had allocated 443 beds for the dengue patients in total, including 164 in Karachi, 213 in Hyderabad and 66 in other parts of the province.

According to him, dengue testing data was being collected from 34 laboratories across Sindh. Karachi had 16 labs conducting dengue tests, of which six belonged to the public sector and 10 to the private sector.

Hyderabad had 18 labs, including seven public and 11 private facilities, he said. The secretary urged the citizens to ensure cleanliness, remove stagnant water, use mosquito repellents and seek timely medical care if they developed fever, body pain, headache, nausea or rash.