Dengue fever outbreak enters most intense phase, claims another life

Rawalpindi: The dengue fever outbreak in this region of the country has entered the most intense phase after the setting in of the most favourable weather conditions for transmission of the infection that claimed one more life in last 24 hours taking the total number of deaths so far reported at the three allied hospitals in town to 21.

The continuous increase in number of cases of dengue fever and subsequent deaths in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi hints that the concerned government authorities including district health department and city district government have failed in controlling the recent spike of the infection.

The infection has claimed a total of 21 deaths at the three allied hospitals including 11 deaths at Holy Family Hospital, nine at Benazir Bhutto Hospital and one at District Headquarters Hospital. Data collected by ‘The News’ on Monday reveals that in last 48 hours, the allied hospitals tested as many as 481 patients positive for dengue fever that took the total number of dengue fever patients so far registered with the allied hospitals to 7,094. That data also reveals that the three teaching hospitals have been receiving nearly 220 to 250 confirmed patients of the infection for the last one week or so and the number is showing an upward trend.

A consistent rise in number of confirmed cases of dengue fever for the last one month and 21 deaths due to dengue fever in a month has not only made the situation alarming but also belied tall claims being made repeatedly by the top officials in the provincial health department regarding control on the outbreak. It is important that in last 10 years, the dengue fever outbreaks came to end by the end of November mainly because of continuous fall in mercury that made weather conditions unfit for breeding and growth of mosquitoes particularly ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that causes dengue fever and it seems as the outbreak would be under control in November this year too.

The district health department and city district government along with district allied departments have been taking a number of steps to strengthen surveillance against dengue fever but according to many health experts, the response is too late and may not yield the desired results.

On the other hand, the government authorities have repeatedly claimed that if they have not taken extensive control measures in last one month, there would be a lot more cases at the hospitals.

The top officials at the Punjab health department including Vice Chancellor at Rawalpindi Medical University, however, have already admitted that the health department along with other stakeholders responded late and what they are doing now should have been done much earlier to avoid early outbreak of the infection.

On Monday, a total of 888 including 680 confirmed patients of dengue fever were undergoing treatment at the allied hospitals of which 16 were admitted to high dependency units of the hospital. Of 16, as many as 12 were suffering from dengue shock syndrome while four from dengue hemorrhagic fever.