-347,930 sites checked during surveillance
-92 more test positive for Dengue in Capital
By Hina Kiyani
RAWALPINDI: As many as 1869 confirmed dengue cases had been brought to the allied hospitals of the city, out of which 1791 were discharged after recovery, while 56 more cases were surfaced in the last 24 hours.
District Coordinator Epidemics Prevention and Control (DCEPC) Dr Sajjad Mehmood informed Thursday that presently 98 dengue patients were under treatment in Holy Family Hospital (HFH), out of which 42 were tested positive, eight positive out of 12 in Benazir Bhutto Hospital(BBH) and 28 confirmed cases out of the total 49 admitted in District Headquarters Hospital(DHQ),†he added. Dr Sajjad informed that HFH had registered 1153 positive cases of dengue fever, DHQ registered 237, while 479 had been registered with BBH. He added that out of the total confirmed cases reported so far,1134 belonged to the Rawalpindi district while the remaining of the other districts included the Federal capital area.
He informed that among the 56 new cases reported during the last 24 hours with 23 belonged to the Rawalpindi Cantonment area, six from Pothohar Town, eight from Metropolitan Khan Rawalpindi, three from Chaklala Cantt and one each case arrived from Taxila Cantonment, Gujjar Khan and Murree while the addresses of the remaining cases were not confirmed yet, “he added.
Dr Sajjad that during indoor surveillance from October 13 to 21 in all tehsils of the district and Cantonment areas,263,443 houses were checked and larvae were found at 3837 homes while 408 teams during outdoor surveillance checked 84,487 sites and larvae was located at 121 points.
He urged the residents to keep their water tanks clean and not leave any place wet with stagnant water. Currently, he said prevention of the disease was the government’s priority, and the district health administration was working day and night to control the outbreak of the infection.
On the other hand, Islamabad continues to report a spike in dengue fever cases as 92 more people tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease in the capital during the past 24 hours.
Of the new cases, 38 were reported in rural areas while 54 in urban areas, sources said, adding a total of 2,429 people have got infected with the disease in Islamabad this year.
Rural areas have seen 1,479 cases while urban 950 cases, the sources said.
The number of people dying due to dengue fever this season stands at nine. Earlier today, a man died of dengue hemorrhagic fever at a private hospital in Karachi.
Nadeem, a resident of Hyderabad’s Dadan Shah Colony, was hospitalised after being diagnosed with the disease. 13 more people were diagnosed with dengue fever in Sindh’s second largest city during the past 24 hours.
An alarming rise in dengue fever cases has set alarm bells ringing in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Sindh and Islamabad. Health experts have warned that the number of cases and critical patients are likely to increase in the days to come.
