ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, already grappling with the issue of flash
floods and subsequent myriad problems relating rescue, relief and
rehabilitation of hundreds of thousands of flood victims, is further
burdened with a massive menace of dengue fever.
According to
statistics, in Punjab alone, at least 28 people have died of this
disease with 5510 patients infected with dengue virus in the province.
Doctors
stressed medical treatment of the disease was extremely vital as soon
as the disease was diagnosed. It is pertinent to note here that mega
platelets kits have run short in the country triggering another mass
problem for the government.
The mega platelets kits used in the
blood transfusion of dengue patients are not available at any public
hospital across Lahore. Warning against the shortage, doctors said the
number of deaths might go up if the situation was not heeded.
Meantime,
a death has been reported in Sindh as well. Nearly 40 cases were
reported in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, where three dengue patients lost their
lives.
Punjab government, instead of taking up concrete efforts
to ward off the mosquito-borne disease, has closed down schools. Punjab
University campuses were evacuated.
Health experts say the
illness is on the rampage across the Punjab because of poor hygiene
conditions, and heavy monsoon rain provides ideal conditions for
dengue-carrying mosquitoes to thrive in stagnant water. The first case
of dengue was reported in Pakistan in 1994.
Those who died
included Ataullah Siddiqui, head of the provincial department of
minerals and natural resources. Meantime, a team of experts have
arrived in Pakistan from Sri Lanka to help fight the disease.
The
disease is a threat to nearly half of the world’s population. Of the
estimated 220 million people infected each year, two million -- mostly
children in Latin America and Asia -- develop a severe form called
dengue hemorrhagic fever. There is currently no cure or vaccine for
dengue fever. Online
