Islamabad reported a record number of dengue fever cases on Friday with another patient dying of the mosquito-borne disease at the Poly Clinic Hospital.
As many as 174 people were diagnosed with the virus during the previous 24 hours, District Health Officer Dr Zaeem Zia said in a Twitter statement. Of them, 110 were reported from rural areas and 64 from urban.
“Our teams are busy responding to both epidemic and a [Covid] pandemic at the same time,” he said.
A total of 2,603 people have contracted the virus in the capital this season with rural areas seeing 1,589 cases and urban 1,014 cases. Ten patients have succumbed to the disease. Dengue isolation wards have been set up at four public sector hospitals, including PIMS, Poly Clinic, Federal General Hospital and CDA Hospital. 137 patients of dengue fever are being treated in these hospitals at present. Separately, 3,419 samples were tested for Covid-19 in the capital in the past 24 hours, leading to the emergence of 44 new cases. Infection rate was recorded at 1.29 per cent. Lahore has seen a rise in the cases too. More than 350 people with dengue fever were reported on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 8882. One person lost their life and the city’s death toll from dengue now stands at 16.
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health has issued an advisory to contain dengue cases as the number continues to rise across the country especially in the major cities of Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi.
The research institute has urged people to take precautionary measure to avoid mosquito bites. Dengue is present in almost all geographical areas of Pakistan and at least 3,795 cases of dengue have been reported since September. The mosquitos causing dengue have black and white stripes on them.
Health experts say the active period for dengue mosquito attacks is two hours after the sunrise and two hours before the sunset. The breeding stops once the temperatures fall below 16 degrees Celsius.
