Dengue fever claims three more lives in Pindi

Rawalpindi: The dengue fever outbreak in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi remains intense as the infection has claimed another three lives here at the allied hospitals in town taking total number of deaths so far reported due to infection at the allied hospitals to 31 this year, from September 5 to date.

The allied hospitals including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital received as many as 408 confirmed cases of the infection in last three days taking the total number of patients so far confirmed for dengue fever at the allied hospitals to 10,502.

Of the three deaths due to the infection in last 72 hours, two confirmed dengue fever patients died at DHQ Hospital while one at HFH. To date, as many as 16 patients lost their lives at HFH due to the infection while 10 at BBH and five at DHQ Hospital.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Sunday has revealed that to date, over 12 patients died of the infection at the allied hospitals this year were residents of the federal capital while over 4,200 patients so far confirmed positive for dengue fever at the allied hospitals in Rawalpindi are residents of Islamabad though most of them reached hospitals from the rural areas of the federal capital.

The outbreak is still intense as the three teaching hospitals in town received as many as 163 confirmed cases of dengue fever in last 24 hours while currently, as many as 494 patients of the infection including confirmed and suspected ones were undergoing treatment at the allied hospitals on Sunday. The dengue fever wards at the allied hospitals had to receive confirmatory reports in as many as 78 cases of dengue fever on Sunday morning.

A total of 396 confirmed patients of dengue fever were undergoing treatment at the allied hospitals on Sunday of which at least 134 were suffering from dengue haemorrhagic fever, a complicated form of the infection while 15 had contracted dengue shock syndrome, the most fatal form of the fever.

The allied hospitals have been receiving extraordinary burden of dengue fever patients for the last two months and still the influx is too heavy.

To date, the HFH admitted a total of 6,619 suspected patients of dengue fever of which 5,425 have been tested positive while 1,185 were tested negative for the infection. The BBH admitted a total of 3,951 suspected patients of dengue fever so far this year of which a total of 3068 patients have been tested positive for dengue fever while the DHQ Hospital admitted 2,417 probable patients of the fever of which 2,009 have been tested positive.