No let-up in dengue fever outbreak

Rawalpini

The dengue fever outbreak is continuing to hit population in town in its most intense phase and the trend of incidence of the infection hints that the concerned authorities have failed in checking spread of the infection and the outbreak would only be wiped out by fall in temperature like and past.

The outbreak has claimed another life here at Holy Family Hospital in last one week taking the total number of deaths due to the infection at the HFH to four. The allied hospitals in town have been receiving well over 70 confirmed patients of dengue fever per day on average for the last 10 days and the number did not show any decline.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Saturday reveals that in last seven days, the three teaching hospitals tested as many as 517 patients positive for dengue fever taking the total number of patients confirmed positive for the infection this year at the allied hospitals to 1922.

Also no reduction in influx of patients visiting dengue fever outpatients departments at the allied hospitals has been witnessed for the last three weeks.

In last 24 hours, the three teaching hospitals including HFH, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital tested as many as 67 patients positive for dengue fever while result in 37 patients are yet to be finalized by the hospitals.

According to details, the three allied hospitals received a total of 388 dengue fever suspects at their dengue OPDs in last 24 hours. Of these, as many as 217 were registered as suspects and 85 were admitted to the wards while 149 have been discharged.

On Saturday, as many as 235 patients including 171 confirmed patients of dengue fever were undergoing treatment at the wards of the allied hospitals while another 16 patients including six patients of dengue hemorrhagic fever and five patients of dengue shock syndrome were undergoing treatment in high dependency units of the HFH and BBH.

To date, the HFH has tested a total of 974 patients positive for the infection while as many as 127 patients have been undergoing treatment at the hospital on Saturday. The infection has so far claimed a total of four lives at the allied hospitals, all at the HFH.

As many as 798 confirmed patients of dengue fever have so far reported at the BBH while result in as many as 37 cases have yet to be finalised by the hospital. A total of 109 patients including 60 confirmed patients of the infection were undergoing treatment at the BBH on Saturday.

The DHQ Hospital has tested a total of 150 patients positive for dengue fever this year while on Saturday, a total of 15 patients were undergoing treatment at the hospital.