Two more die as KP govt struggles to curtail dengue

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is struggling to overcome the dengue epidemic as it claimed two more lives on Tuesday and the death toll from the mosquito-borne disease rose to 17 in the province, said government officials.

The total number of dengue patients is stated to have exceeded 5,000. Also, patients suffering from fever and other seasonal sicknesses are visiting the public sector hospitals in the province after the health workers returned to work following four days of Eid holidays.

Besides Peshawar, five other districts, including Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Buner and Mardan reported dengue positive cases on Tuesday. The Dengue Response Unit (DRU), set up at the KP Health Department after dengue outbreak, said the two patients died of the virus belonged to Peshawar’s Tehkal locality, where the virus first broke out in July this year.

The residents of the affected areas including Tehkal and Pishtakhara as well as some officials of Health Department are accusing the provincial government and particularly the Public Health Department, primarily established for such diseases, of its delayed response to the disease. They are alleging that it was in fact delayed response of the Public Health Department that the disease later became an epidemic.

Both the patients died in the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) in Peshawar, where majority of the dengue patients are being brought in numbers. They were identified as four-year old boy Khuzefa, son of Akhtar Ali, and 45-year-old Fatima, wife of Iqbal Hussain.

The KTH administration claimed the minor boy was brought to the hospital with pneumonia but also tested positive for dengue. The hospital administration, however, didn’t reach to a conclusion if the boy died of pneumonia or dengue virus.

As per DRU report, 1675 patients were taken to various hospitals in KP in which 1656 undergone investigations and 244 tested positive. Of 1,675 dengue patients, 997 patients were taken to KTH and 156 of them were diagnosed with dengue virus.

The hospital administration said 261 dengue patients were under treatment in KTH. Besides KTH, the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) received 191 patients, all were provided free investigations and 26 of them were found suffering from dengue fever.

The hospital is currently providing services to 55 indoor patients. The number of dengue patients has been rising in the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) as 155 patients were taken there and all were provided free investigations.

Of them, 27 tested positive and 55 patients were presently under treatment there. Also in Peshawar, Mercy Teaching Hospital diagnosed six patients with dengue virus, Naseerullah Babar Hospital reported five cases and Rahman Medical Institute (RMI) tested two patients positive. After Peshawar, Mardan has become the second dengue-affected district in KP.

According to officials, the Mardan Medical Complex (MMC) received 83 patients and all were provided investigations but 10 of them tested positive.

As per DRU report, 28 dengue patients were under treatment there. Similarly, the District Headquarters Hospital (DHQ) Buner reported six positive cases, Haripur four cases, and Abbottabad and Mansehra reported one each case.