Two more die of dengue at Pindi’s HFH

Rawalpindi: The dengue fever outbreak is still haunting population in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi with significant severity despite fall in temperature as the infection claimed another two lives here at Holy Family Hospital (HFH) while as many as 366 more patients have been confirmed positive at the three teaching hospitals in town in last 72 hours.

To date, the infection has claimed 27 lives in all at the allied hospitals. Death of another two patients at HFH has taken the total number of deaths at the hospital to 15 while as many as 10 confirmed patients of dengue fever died of the infection at Benazir Bhutto Hospital. The infection has claimed two lives at District Headquarters Hospital till Tuesday morning.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Tuesday has revealed that for the last one week, the allied hospitals have been receiving 120 to 150 confirmed patients of dengue fever on average and it is apparently a significant drop in number of patients reported per day on average. Earlier, the hospitals were receiving 180 to 240 patients per day.

Many health experts, however, believe that the decline in number of dengue fever patients at the allied hospitals is due to a number of free medical camps operating across district. Almost all public sector hospitals in the region including allied hospitals and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences have been providing treatment to a number of confirmed dengue fever patients on outdoor basis and the same pattern is being followed by the medical camps in the region.

The allied hospitals in town have tested as many as 135 patients positive for dengue fever in last 24 hours taking total number of confirmed patients of the infection so far reported at the allied hospitals to 9798.

As many as 69 patients have been tested positive for dengue fever at HFH while Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) tested another 38 patients positive for the infection in last 24 hours. The District Headquarters Hospital has received 28 confirmed patients of dengue fever in last 24 hours.

It is important to mention here that over 40 per cent of the total confirmed patients of dengue fever reaching allied hospitals in town are residents of the federal capital.

On Tuesday morning, as many as 435 patients of dengue fever were undergoing treatment at the allied hospitals including 322 confirmed patients of the infection while the hospitals had to receive confirmatory reports in 92 cases.

Of the admitted patients, 140 were suffering from dengue hemorrhagic fever while another eight were in dengue shock syndrome, the most critical form of the infection.

Another nine patients suffering from DSS and seven DHF patients were undergoing treatment in high dependency units of HFH and BBH on Tuesday morning.