Dengue fever outbreak gets more severe, causing 3 more deaths

Rawalpindi :The dengue fever outbreak is getting more and more severe every day in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi as the infection claimed another three lives in last 48 hours at the allied hospitals in town taking the total number of deaths so far caused by dengue fever at the three teaching hospitals to 19.

From September 5 this year to October 2, as many as 10 confirmed patients of dengue fever died of the infection at Holy Family Hospital while in last two days, the infection claimed another life at HFH taking total number of deaths at the hospital to 11 while two more patients died of the infection at Benazir Bhutto Hospital in last 48 hours. To date, the infection has claimed eight lives at BBH.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Friday reveals that in last 24 hours, the three teaching hospitals in town including HFH, BBH and District Headquarters Hospital received as many as 289 confirmed patients of dengue fever while a total of 1660 patients reported at dengue outpatient departments at the allied hospitals in one day.

The allied hospitals tested as many as 429 patients positive for dengue fever in last two days that took the total number of confirmed patients of the infection so far registered with the allied hospitals to 6397.

The on-going dengue fever outbreak has already proved to be the worst-ever outbreak of the infection in this region of the country and the number of confirmed patients so far registered with the allied hospitals is much higher if compared with the most severe outbreaks of dengue fever reported in the region, in 2015 and 2016.

At this point in time, till October 5 in 2016, the allied hospitals had registered a total of 729 confirmed patients while in 2015, the allied hospitals tested a total of slightly over 1,050 patients positive till October 4. It is important that in 2015, a total of nearly 4500 confirmed patients were reported in the region while in 2016, over 3,900 cases were registered though in 2016, the dengue fever outbreak claimed a total of 11 lives in the region, eight at the three allied hospitals in town and three in hospitals in the federal capital.

The outbreaks in 2015 and 2016 lost severities after the second week of November and both the outbreaks came to seasonal close by the end of November to the first week of December.

This year, the HFH has so far tested a total of 3350 patients positive while the BBH received 1,723 confirmed patients of the infection during the current season. The DHQ Hospital received a total of 1,324 confirmed patients of dengue fever to date.

It is alarming that the burden of dengue fever patients at the allied hospitals is continuously on the rise and it has already crossed the maximum available capacity of the hospitals for management of dengue fever patients. The hospitals have already been utilizing space in a number of wards and corridors to facilitate dengue fever patients.

On Friday morning, as many as 877 patients including 632 confirmed patients of dengue fever were undergoing treatment at the allied hospitals. Another 10 patients of the infection were undergoing treatment at High Dependency Unit of HFH while six in HDU at the BBH on Friday.

It is important to mention here that in 2015, the population in town faced the worst dengue fever outbreak and the allied hospitals had to manage space to accommodate 400 patients in their wards in phase 2 while in phase 1, the allied hospitals arranged space to cater to the needs of 200 dengue fever patients requiring hospitalisation. The allied hospitals followed almost the same protocol in 2016 but this year, the number of admitted patients has already crossed the figure of 850.