Dengue triggers medical emergency in Pakistan

Islamabad: The medical services remain on high alert after an outbreak of dengue fever has already claimed more than 5,000 victims with 31 fatalities reported within a month.

Caused by the bite of freshwater female mosquitos, the haemorrhagic fever has triggered an emergency across the country. Officials believe that most cases still remain unreported as villagers treat the fever as an ordinary one with traditional herbal medicine.

The Punjab province tops the list with over 1,700 cases reported. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has seen 160 cases, Jammu and Kashmir 5 and two in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Dr Anwar-ul-Haque of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences told Gulf News that the disease can be extremely painful.

Global risk

In its global alert the World Health Organisation fears that some 2.5 billion people, or two-fifths of the world's population, are now at risk from dengue and estimates that there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide every year.

The disease has been reported in 100 countries with 2005 witnessing an outbreak in Singapore, 2006 in India, 2006 in Pakistan, and 2009 in Bolivia.

The same year, Argentina faced the worst impact with over 9673 cases being reported by the country's Health Ministry.

However, Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, Secretary of the Health Ministry, sought to downplay the outbreak. "Given the country's population, the disease claimed almost zero percentage. To deal with the impending threat, the government has issued guidelines to provincial and local line departments," he told Gulf News yesterday.

Rising toll

Ironically, the death toll belies the claim of the government as 16 deaths have been reported in Sindh, five in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six in Jammu and Kashmir and four in Islamabad-Rawalpindi.