Two-year-old becomes year’s 12th dengue victim in city

KARACHI: The dreaded dengue haemorrhagic fever has claimed one more life despite relatively cold weather in Karachi, as a two-year-old boy died due to the mosquito-borne disease, said a Dengue Prevention and Control Programme official on Tuesday.

“Amir Ahmed was admitted to the Aga Khan University Hospital with complaints of high-grade fever and restlessness. His medical examination revealed that he had dengue viral infection. The child died today due to complications of the mosquito-borne viral disease,” the programme manager of the Sindh Dengue Prevention and Control Programme, Dr Abdur Rasheed, told The News.

With the latest death, the number of casualties because of the mosquito-borne viral disease has reached 12 in Karachi, the official said, adding that it was an unusual case as the frequency of dengue cases would normally reduce in the colder months of the year.

Two persons had lost their lives earlier in the month of October this year, as a 66-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman had died in a week at a private hospital because of the mosquito-borne viral disease, while nine more persons had died earlier in the city in the warmer months of the year when weather conditions were suitable for the breeding of mosquitoes.

Experts said poor cleanliness and environmental conditions were providing favourable breeding conditions to mosquitoes, which were thriving due to presence of heaps of garbage and pools of stagnant freshwater in different areas of the city.

“Pools of stagnant freshwater have become the breeding grounds of mosquitoes responsible for spreading dengue, chikungunya and malaria in the city. Unfortunately, neither the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation nor the health department of the Sindh government is doing anything to get people rid of this menace,” said Dr Khurram Shahzad, a consultant trained in treating viral diseases.

Even Dengue Control Programme officials confirmed that the dengue and chikungunya cases were still being reported from different areas of the city on a daily basis. They, however, claimed their frequency had reduced in comparison with the months of June and July this year.

They advised people to take precautionary measures, use clothes covering complete body, not let water accumulate around their homes and use mosquito repellents. “Children and elderly people are more prone to the viral and infectious diseases because of having weak immune systems. It is necessary to prevent them from mosquitoes by covering their bodies day and night, using mosquito repellents and improving cleanliness conditions around the residential areas to get rid of mosquitoes,” Dr Abdur Rasheed advised.