Dengue fever claims two more lives at allied hospitals

Number of confirmed patients crosses the figure of 2,200

Rawalpindi

The dengue fever outbreak that is hitting population in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi in its most intense phase has claimed another two lives in last two days taking the total number of deaths caused by the infection here at the allied hospitals to six.

According to details, one of the two patients expired at the allied hospitals was a female patient taken to Holy Family Hospital from Media Town on Saturday and expired on Monday due to dengue fever and co-morbidities while the other patient expired here at Benazir Bhutto Hospital.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Wednesday reveals that the allied hospitals have been receiving well over 65 confirmed patients of dengue fever per day on average and the number has not shown any decline at least for the last two weeks.

In last four days only, the allied hospitals have tested another 274 patients positive for dengue fever taking the total number of confirmed patients of the infection so far registered with the allied hospitals to 2,200.

The infection has so far claimed six lives in all, five at the HFH and one at the BBH while on Wednesday, a total of 14 confirmed patients including 10 patients suffering from dengue hemorrhagic fever were undergoing treatment at high dependency units of HFH and BBH.

Another 305 patients including 234 confirmed patients of the infection were undergoing treatment in wards at the three teaching hospitals in town. As many as 156 patients including 145 confirmed ones were undergoing treatment at the HFH on Wednesday while 144 patients including 84 confirmed patients were admitted to BBH. Another 19 confirmed patients of dengue fever were undergoing treatment at District Headquarters Hospital on Wednesday.

It is important that well over 60 per cent of the total confirmed patients of dengue fever reaching allied hospitals in town are residents of the federal capital.

To date, a total of 1,132 patients have been confirmed positive for dengue fever through NS1 test at the HFH this year of which as many as 675 are residents of Islamabad, while only 362 patients belong to Rawalpindi.

Confirmation of another 100 patients positive for dengue fever at the BBH in last four days took the total number of positive cases of infection so far registered to the BBH to 896 on Wednesday while the hospital has yet to finalize results in another 38 probable cases.  The DHQ Hospital has received a total of 150 confirmed patients of dengue fever this year.