Dengue fever claims life of eight-year-old in Malir district

As the Dengue Prevention and Control Program claimed on Wednesday that the cases of dengue in Karachi had started to drop in November, an eight-year-old boy died of the mosquito-borne disease near the border of Balochistan in District Malir. Two young girls have also reportedly died of dengue in the same area.

“An eight-year-old boy is the latest fatality due to dengue fever in Union Council Moidan Khan Goth, a very far flung area of District Malir near Balochistan border. Today a team of health officials from the district health office Malir visited the area and learnt about deaths of two young girls, who also died reportedly due to dengue fever,” said Dr Ahmed Ali Memon, the Malir district health officer (DHO) Malir while talking to newsmen.

The Sindh health department had dispatched a team of doctors and paramedics to the far-flung rural area after reports circulated in the media and social media platforms about deaths of children there due to dengue fever, officials said, adding that the team found some ailing children in the village, who were shifted to a child health facility in the city.

“Team of health officials who visited the village found four children who required admission to a health facility so they were shifted to the Children Hospital near Nagan Chowrangi,” Dr Ahmed said.

He added that one of the children, eight-year-old Muhammad Akhtar, was later shifted to the National Institute of Children Health (NICH) for treatment where he succumbed to the mosquito-borne illness.

Dr Ahmed said their team also provided necessary treatment to the people of the village and gave them information about how they could prevent themselves from dengue fever as well as other communicable diseases.

Meanwhile, the Dengue Prevention and Control Program officials claimed that due to their efforts, dengue cases had started reducing in November and now ‘only 200 cases’ were being reported daily from the city compared to 300 cases per day in October.

In a report presented to Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani, Dengue Prevention and Control Program Incharge Dr Iqbal Memon said, “Only 1,198” people had tested positive for dengue fever in the first five days of November.” He expressed the hope that as the temperature would drop with the passage of time, the number of dengue cases would further decrease.

Shallwani directed the dengue control program officials to strictly monitor the dengue outbreak in the city, carry out fumigation and create awareness among the people about the mosquito-borne illness.