![[Pakistan] More than 20,000 people have been hospitalised with suspected dengue fever. [Date picture taken: 11/01/2006]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20061114.jpg.webp?itok=82HJS4Eq "More than 20,000 people have been hospitalised with suspected dengue fever")
Pakistani health authorities have stepped up efforts to contain the spread of dengue fever, which has killed at least 30 and hospitalised thousands across the country since early September.
New moves to check the mosquito-borne virus include free diagnosis and treatment at public hospitals, officials said on Monday.
“Since there is no cure available, only public health preventive measures can contain further spread of the virus. Also, a mass awareness campaign has been expanded and authorities have been providing bed nets and insecticides in localities worst affected,” Dr Kamran Jalil, a medical officer at the National Institute of Health (NIH) said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
“A total of 2,009 suspected cases of dengue fever have so far been reported in various hospitals across the country, out of which 596 have been confirmed as positive,” Syed Anwar Mehmood, the federal health secretary said in a press briefing on Sunday.
The southern port city of Karachi has the highest number of suspected cases: 1,735, with some 512 people found positive.
Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever are endemic in Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with occasional outbreaks reported in previous years.
The UN health body has been providing technical support to enhance the disease surveillance capacity of national and local health authorities, particularly in the southern Sindh province.
The WHO will also provide 1,000 diagnostic kits to hospitals across the country to ensure that those suspected of having the disease are being provided with adequate medical facilities to diagnose the disease.
In neighbouring India, an outbreak of dengue fever has claimed at least 139 lives across the country, with nearly 10,000 people affected by the mosquito-borne illness since the epidemic took hold in early September.
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New moves to check the mosquito-borne virus include free diagnosis and treatment at public hospitals, officials said on Monday.
“Since there is no cure available, only public health preventive measures can contain further spread of the virus. Also, a mass awareness campaign has been expanded and authorities have been providing bed nets and insecticides in localities worst affected,” Dr Kamran Jalil, a medical officer at the National Institute of Health (NIH) said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
“A total of 2,009 suspected cases of dengue fever have so far been reported in various hospitals across the country, out of which 596 have been confirmed as positive,” Syed Anwar Mehmood, the federal health secretary said in a press briefing on Sunday.
The southern port city of Karachi has the highest number of suspected cases: 1,735, with some 512 people found positive.
Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever are endemic in Pakistan, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with occasional outbreaks reported in previous years.
The UN health body has been providing technical support to enhance the disease surveillance capacity of national and local health authorities, particularly in the southern Sindh province.
The WHO will also provide 1,000 diagnostic kits to hospitals across the country to ensure that those suspected of having the disease are being provided with adequate medical facilities to diagnose the disease.
In neighbouring India, an outbreak of dengue fever has claimed at least 139 lives across the country, with nearly 10,000 people affected by the mosquito-borne illness since the epidemic took hold in early September.
ts/sc/jl
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