Number of dengue fever patients in twin cities registering sharp increase

Islamabad: The number of dengue fever patients being reported from Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district has been registering a sharp increase though the case fatality rate is still significantly lower from the region as out of well over 2,450 patients so far confirmed positive from the twin cities, six patients have lost their lives due to the fever.

In the last 24 hours, over 160 patients have been tested positive for dengue fever from the twin cities while the infection has claimed another life-taking tally from the region to six. It is important that all the six deaths so far caused by dengue fever from the region have been reported from the federal capital.

Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that in the last six days, over 900 patients have been reported from ICT and Rawalpindi district while one patient died of the infection from this region of the country in the last nine days.

Till Thursday, a total of over 1,649 patients have been reported from the federal capital including 1,077 cases from rural areas of ICT and 572 from urban areas of the federal capital. Five of the six deaths reported from ICT had been registered from rural areas while one patient died of dengue fever from the urban area of the federal capital. The fever has not claimed any life from Rawalpindi district so far in this year however well over 800 patients have been tested positive for the infection from the district.

According to District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia, out of 121 patients who tested positive for dengue fever from ICT in the last 24 hours, 62 are from rural areas of the federal capital and 59 from urban areas. It is important that the death caused by the infection in the last 24 hours has been reported from Madina Town, Tarlai that has taken the total number of dengue fever deaths to three in Tarlai. One patient each so far died of dengue fever from Tarnol and Alipur Farash and one from G-12 Islamabad.

Data reveals that out of 2,450 patients confirmed positive from the region, over 1450 have been managed at the three allied hospitals including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, and District Headquarters Hospital in Rawalpindi that have so far discharged 1355 confirmed patients after treatment.

It is worth mentioning here that HFH is considered as the best healthcare facility in the region for treatment and management of dengue fever patients that has so far tested 919 patients positive for the infection of which 872 have been discharged. As many as 333 confirmed patients have so far been admitted to BBH and 172 have reported to DHQ Hospital in Rawalpindi.

A total of 249 beds have been allocated for dengue fever management in the three teaching hospitals of which 145 beds were occupied by the patients on Friday. A total of 79 confirmed dengue fever patients were undergoing treatment at the teaching hospitals of which five were in critical condition on Friday.