Dengue fever has claimed 15 lives in Sindh this year

Dengue fever has so far killed 15 people in Sindh in the first 10 months of the current year and five of them lost their lives in the month of October alone, Sindh health department officials on Monday said, adding that as many as 1,291 cases of dengue fever had been reported in the current month from the entire province.

“As many as 15 people, including three in the month of October alone, have lost their lives due to complications of dengue fever, including dengue shock syndrome and dengue hemorrhagic fever in Sindh. Three people died in Karachi due to dengue viral infection this month,” Vector Borne Diseases Control Sindh Additional Director General Dr Teerath Das told a meeting on Monday.

The meeting was presided over by Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho who expressed her annoyance at the authorities’ failure to control vector-borne diseases, including dengue fever, malaria and Leishmaniasis and directed the vector-borne diseases control department to focus on case response in areas where dengue and other vector-borne disease cases were being reported.

Dr Das informed the meeting, which was also attended by Sindh Health Director General Dr Juman Bahoto, Additional Director EPI Dr Irshad Memon and others, that the highest number of deaths due to dengue in the ongoing year was reported in the month of September when six people died of dengue shock syndrome and dengue hemorrhagic fever in the province.

“So far, 3,270 cases of dengue fever have been reported in Sindh in the current year, of which the highest number was reported in the current month. So far 1,307 dengue cases have been reported in the month of October 2021 while 625 cases of dengue fever were reported last month,” Dr Das explained.

He maintained that three deaths had also been reported in August due to dengue fever as monsoon was the high transmission season for dengue. He added that one person died of dengue in the province each in the months of March, May and June this year.

The meeting was told that Karachi’s East and Central districts along with Hyderabad were the most affected districts due to dengue fever in the province where 179, 169 and 241 cases of dengue fever had so far been reported in October respectively.

The vector-borne diseases control official claimed that the facilities of diagnosis and treatment of dengue fever were available at 131 sentinel sites in the province but, ironically, data of only 18 such sites was presented at the meeting.

Karachi data

According to the data of the Sindh health department, 64 per cent of all the dengue cases have been reported by three leading private hospitals in Karachi where the Aga Khan University Hospital reported 1,560 or 47 per cent cases, Dr Ziauddin Hospital reported 308 or 9 per cent cases and Liaquat National Hospital reported 263 or 8 per cent cases.

Data of only 18 of the public and private hospitals that reported dengue fever cases was presented in the meeting. Interestingly, the dengue-related data of Sindh’s largest hospitals, including Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Civil Hospital Karachi, was not available with the health department.

Call for action

Dr Azra ordered action and concrete measures to control vector-borne diseases including dengue, malaria and Leishmaniasis in the province and said those areas should be focused from where cases of dengue were being reported.

The health minister also called for survey of mosquito larva in swimming pools, fountains, clean water tanks and containers in Karachi and issued directions for initiating larvacidal activities without any delay in the city.