Three more die of dengue fever complications in KP

PESHAWAR: The deadly dengue virus in the past two days claimed three more lives in Peshawar and Abbottabad as 311 more patients tested positive across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in two days, officials said on Saturday.

The majority of the patients tested positive in Peshawar where certain localities like Tehkal and Pishtakhara have been severely affected by the dengue virus. Health Minister Shahram Tarakai along with Secretary Health Abid Majeed visited the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) on Friday night and expressed shock over the attitude of the hospital staff towards dengue patients and their attendants.

An employee of the hospital, who didn’t see the visiting minister and the secretary Health standing on right side of the dengue counter, didn’t even bother to stand up and guide a dengue patient towards the hospital laboratory.

He was stunned and immediately stood up when he saw the minister and secretary standing near the counter. Another hospital employee then tried to wear his overall.The minister himself witnessed all this with the patients coming into the emergency and expressed his shock over this attitude of KTH with patients.

He later called a meeting of the hospital administration and told them they would need to change their attitude. The KTH is unfortunately suffering from serious administrative issues for the past few years. Under MTI Act 2015, all powers transferred to the hospital director but KTH never got a good administrator to efficiently run the hospital. Its present hospital director, Dr Nek Dad Afridi is too good and polite that his staff always considered him a weak person and exploited his politeness. Meanwhile, according to the Dengue Response Unit (DRU) set up at the Health Department in Peshawar, 719 patients underwent tests in different hospitals of the province on Friday and 137 among them were diagnosed with dengue.

Among the hospitals receiving suspected dengue patients, KTH has been facing much of the burden as the epidemic took place in its vicinity in the Tehkal Payan, Tehkal Bala and Pishtakhara union councils from where the patients are quickly shifted to this hospital.

Though the KTH is a tertiary care hospital, it is not as spacious as the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) to accommodate large number of patients.Currently, 290 dengue patients are under treatment in KTH. Also, out of the 719 patients tested on Friday, the biggest number of 623 patients was tested in KTH and 110 were diagnosed with dengue.

On Saturday,  1178 patients under went investigations and 184 of them were diagnosed with dengue virus.

Out of 1178 total patients, 725 of them came to KTH for investigations and 108 were tested positive. A 60-year old patient was brought to KTH on August 23 from Charsadda where he was tested positive.

However, the patient succumbed to the mosquito-borne disease in the hospital in the next day. According to officials, two patients died of dengue virus at the Ayub Teaching Hospital in Abbottabad on Saturday. The total number of patients died of dengue virus in KP has now reached 10.

As per the DRU data, 135 patients were tested in LRH and 171were found suffering from dengue virus. The data showed that 123 new patients were admitted in different hospitals on Friday and 97 on Saturday. It noted that the total number of patients getting treatment in hospitals had reached 419.At the Bacha Khan Medical Complex in Swabi, 12 patients were tested and two were diagnosed with dengue.

As usual, Mardan again reported five new cases.Focal person for dengue in the Mardan Medical Complex (MMC), Prof Ameer Khan, said seven among the dengue patients had recovered and they were discharged from the hospital on Saturday.

Before sending those seven patients to their homes, Prof Ameer Khan said they had sent some teams for conducting spray in their houses and neighbourhood.

According to officials, other districts such as Buner, Charsadda, Kohat and Abbottabad also reported positive cases.Prof Ameer Khan said the patients were given a basket of fruit and two spray bottles each and were advised to use the spray at home for eradication of mosquitos and help prevent other healthy members of their family and neighbourhood from being infected by the mosquito.

He said even if the dengue patients recovered from the disease, they will remain potential source of transmitting the virus to healthy people bitten by dengue mosquito.In Peshawar, Deputy Commissioner Saqib Raza Aslam as usual supervised an aggressive campaign launched for dengue eradication and appreciated the workers for their non-stop efforts against dengue.

After visiting different areas to supervise work of his teams, he told a news conference that 90 teams were involved in the work against dengue.Saqib Raza said they had divided the areas for better work and for assistance of their teams. He added that they had launched a campaign against dengue on the pattern of polio.

“We are conducting a door-to-door campaign in which our teams provide people mosquito repellent lotion and tablets for water and distribute free booklets for awareness of the people. Also, our teams conduct proper spray in all the houses and then give a number to each of the house,” the deputy commissioner said in the briefing.

He said they had involved female health workers in the campaign for visiting houses and creating awareness among the women to cover all water tanks and dispose of stagnant water.Aqib Raza said their campaign against old tires will continue in the city, saying these old tires are the best source of dengue virus.Also, the Health Department provided mosquito nets to different hospitals, including KTH that received 400 nets, and LRH and HMC got 300 each nets.