At least 12 people have died of dengue fever since an outbreak hit southern Pakistan in mid-September, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
More than 160 patients are still hospitalised in the southern port city of Karachi, the epicentre of the mosquito-transmitted epidemic.
“Local authorities have started intervening to control the vector [mosquito] by using thermal fogging and a community awareness campaign to change household water storage methods,” Dr Qutbuddin Kakar, a WHO health officer, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
The recent rise in dengue fever cases is a continuation of the November-December 2005 outbreak, which killed at least 10 people and infected another 300.
The WHO added that 20 people had died so far this year in Pakistan from the disease.
Dengue fever is caused by the bite of a specific type of mosquito known as the Aedes. It thrives where running or piped water is in short supply and where households store water in containers, drums and buckets, for household use.
Health experts say prevention is the best way to check the spread of the disease, as treatment is limited and no vaccine exists. It tends to take hold in poor communities who have limited access to running water and are forced to store water for drinking and cooking.
“The best check to prevent the spread of the epidemic is to provide a regular and uninterrupted supply of water to houses so that people [don’t have to] store water for drinking purposes,” the WHO official said.
Approximately 35 to 50 people suspected of carrying the disease are being admitted to hospital daily in Karachi. Provincial diagnostic laboratories have identified 248 samples that have tested positive for dengue fever, according to officials at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.
In a deadly dengue fever outbreak in neighbouring India, more than 100 people have been reported dead since the epidemic took hold in early September this year, while at least another 5,500 have been infected by the disease.
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More than 160 patients are still hospitalised in the southern port city of Karachi, the epicentre of the mosquito-transmitted epidemic.
“Local authorities have started intervening to control the vector [mosquito] by using thermal fogging and a community awareness campaign to change household water storage methods,” Dr Qutbuddin Kakar, a WHO health officer, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
The recent rise in dengue fever cases is a continuation of the November-December 2005 outbreak, which killed at least 10 people and infected another 300.
The WHO added that 20 people had died so far this year in Pakistan from the disease.
Dengue fever is caused by the bite of a specific type of mosquito known as the Aedes. It thrives where running or piped water is in short supply and where households store water in containers, drums and buckets, for household use.
Health experts say prevention is the best way to check the spread of the disease, as treatment is limited and no vaccine exists. It tends to take hold in poor communities who have limited access to running water and are forced to store water for drinking and cooking.
“The best check to prevent the spread of the epidemic is to provide a regular and uninterrupted supply of water to houses so that people [don’t have to] store water for drinking purposes,” the WHO official said.
Approximately 35 to 50 people suspected of carrying the disease are being admitted to hospital daily in Karachi. Provincial diagnostic laboratories have identified 248 samples that have tested positive for dengue fever, according to officials at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.
In a deadly dengue fever outbreak in neighbouring India, more than 100 people have been reported dead since the epidemic took hold in early September this year, while at least another 5,500 have been infected by the disease.
ts/sc/jl
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