Dengue death toll in KP reaches 44

PESHAWAR: Dengue virus took another life in Peshawar and infected 390 more people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday, the majority of them in Peshawar, said the provincial Health Department.

A 50-year old resident of Peshawar’s Tehkal locality, Niaz Ali, son of Khush Mir, was admitted to the Khyber Teaching Hospital ( KTH) on September 20 where succumbed to the deadly virus.

According to the Dengue Response Unit (DRU), death toll from the mosquito-borne disease in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reached 44.

It said the majority of people died of dengue belonged to Peshawar and most of them lost their lives in KTH.

Since dengue virus was first reported in Tehkal and Pishtakhara union councils of Peshawar and therefore almost all the patients preferred to visit KTH which was close to them.

It overburdened this 1200-bed tertiary care hospital and it not only deprived patients suffering from other health problems but also overstretched the hospital staff.

It was apparently due to heavy burden of dengue patients that the hospital administration could not properly follow patients protocol as dengue patients were kept in other units apart from the four medical units of the hospital which were seen full with dengue patients around the clock.

The residents of Tehkal and Pishtakhara union councils suspect that there might be some serious issues behind this dengue epidemic, saying it has infected almost each and every resident of these areas.

“First my elder brother fell ill and after he recovered after 20 days of treatment and rest, the virus infected my mother, then me and now my sister. I am working at a private cloth store and remained absent from job for 28 days,” said a 25-year Dost Mohammad in Peshawar.

He said though he recovered from the disease, the mosquito-borne illness has made him too weak to walk.

He said they were treated like animals at the KTH.

The KTH administration, however, depended itself saying they handled 90 per cent of the dengue patients in the province.

The hospital administration said bed occupancy in KTH has reached 98 per cent  ?due to dengue epidemic, saying that being a public sector hospital, they cannot refuse patients.

According to the hospital administration, the bed occupancy rate should be kept between 85 per cent to 90 per cent so that sufficient beds are available in case of emergency and routine patient care.

A Peshawar-based Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Arbab Khizer Hayat Khan said dengue had reached Jehangirabad area in Tehkal and has infected three of his neighbours.

Arbab Khizer Hayat and other local politicians mobilised residents of Tehkal and its adjoining localities against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government and held it responsible for its alleged negligence that led loss of precious human lives.