Four more lives lost as dengue outbreak gets out of control

The dengue fever outbreak is getting out of control in Karachi, where four more people have fallen victim to the mosquito-borne viral illness at two branches of a private hospital, health officials said on Tuesday.

They said dozens of patients were in a critical condition and being given treatment at various hospitals of the city. “Four people -- three women and an elderly person -- have succumbed to complications of the dengue fever at the North Nazimabad and Clifton campuses on Tuesday,” a spokesman for Ziauddin Hospital told The News.

He said several more patients were under treatment at both the campuses of the tertiary-care hospital. Sarfraz Hussain, an 82-year-old resident of Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Phase 1, was the first victim, who was brought to Ziauddin Hospital’s Clifton branch where he expired during treatment, the spokesman said, adding that the elderly person had several health conditions, but he died of complications of dengue.

Afhan Asif, a resident of the Gulbahar area, was under treatment at Ziauddin Hospital’s Clifton branch, where she passed away during treatment due to the dengue shock syndrome. Another woman from Gulbahar’s Rizvia Society, identified as 57-year-old Gulnar Begum, expired at the North Nazimabad branch of the hospital, the spokesman said.

Saeeda, a 50-year-old woman from North Karachi, died due to the dengue shock syndrome and multiple organ failure at the North Nazimabad branch of the hospital. With four deaths in a day in Karachi, the number of deaths from dengue climbed to 25, officials said, adding that hundreds of patients were still being treated at various public and private hospitals, of whom the condition of several patients was very critical.

According to officials of the Sindh Dengue Prevention and Control Program, 5,137 people have tested positive for the fever in Karachi in October, while unofficial figures could be as high as 25,000 to 30,000, as a large number of public and private hospitals do not convey the statistics to the health department.

“So far, over 8,181 people have been diagnosed with the dengue fever in Karachi this year officially, but the actual figure could be much higher. They are admitting of only 22 deaths, while as per our estimates, over 150 people could have lost their lives due to the dengue fever in Karachi,” said Dr Khurram Shahzad, a general physician associated with a private health facility in Karachi.

He advised the people to take precautionary measures, use clothes covering their full bodies, use mosquito nets and apply mosquito repellents. He added that the people should also take measures to keep their areas clean and mosquito- free. “If a person contracts the dengue fever and he or she is hospitalised, their family is burdened with thousands of rupees in case of admission to a private hospital, while even after recovery, the affected patient remains unfit for several weeks due to pain and discomfort. So the prevention is the best strategy to avoid financial and physical burden.”