![[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")
As winter temperatures fall to levels that are likely to kill off the dengue-causing aedes aegypti mosquito, the authorities hope the number of cases in Punjab Province will also decline.
Two new cases were reported on 18 December in Lahore, the provincial capital. The authorities have confirmed 1,382 cases in the province, 1,297 of them in Lahore.
Zia-ur-Rehman, director of Communicable Disease Control (CDC), confirmed there had been five deaths due to dengue. "These persons tested positive for dengue. In the cases of another six deaths there was suspicion of dengue, but that was not confirmed," he told IRIN.
Other sources, however, say at least 10 patients may have died. "The authorities are keen to keep the numbers low because they are under pressure from top people in the province to control the situation," said a senior doctor at the government-run Services Hospital in Lahore, who asked not to be named.
Jamal Ahmad, 20, who died at the hospital at the end of November, was the most recent victim. While dengue is in almost all cases a disease that can be effectively treated, most deaths occur when it assumes its more dangerous haemorrhagic form, causing bleeding from body orifices.
"The likelihood of this developing is greater when a person is infected for a second time, with another strain of the disease," said Zaheer Akbar, a practitioner. "Panic about dengue is quite high because at this time of year many people get sick with fever and there is often concern it may be dengue."
According to Zia-ur-Rehman, about 70 people are being treated for dengue in Lahore hospitals. "We must hope the rain now will eliminate dengue," he said.
Rain, usually expected at the start of winter, brings down temperatures and kills off the dengue-causing mosquito. The rains this year have come late.
The striped mosquito transmits dengue when it bites an infected person and then carries the infection to the next person it bites.
Dengue has occurred regularly in the country over the past three years, but winter in northern areas acts to end the cycle of disease that begins each year after the monsoon season, when pools of water offer breeding places.
Medicine
"My husband works as a security guard at a park. There are many mosquitoes there because of the lake. He got bitten last month, developed high fever and severe body pains, and doctors confirmed dengue. He was given some strong medicine, and now he is quite well," said Shahida Jabeen, 25. Her husband, Arshad Mahmood, now uses a home-made mosquito repellent when he goes to work. "The doctor told us to make a paste from the leaves of the neem tree. It is effective and cheap," said Shahida.
Neem (Azadirachta indica), a tree from the mahagony family, is widely believed to have multiple medicinal qualities. Its leaves are used in many herbal preparations and are also the subject of ongoing scientific study.
Increased awareness about dengue and the need to seek early treatment is a factor in keeping the death rate lower this year than in previous years.
kh/at/cb
Two new cases were reported on 18 December in Lahore, the provincial capital. The authorities have confirmed 1,382 cases in the province, 1,297 of them in Lahore.
Zia-ur-Rehman, director of Communicable Disease Control (CDC), confirmed there had been five deaths due to dengue. "These persons tested positive for dengue. In the cases of another six deaths there was suspicion of dengue, but that was not confirmed," he told IRIN.
Other sources, however, say at least 10 patients may have died. "The authorities are keen to keep the numbers low because they are under pressure from top people in the province to control the situation," said a senior doctor at the government-run Services Hospital in Lahore, who asked not to be named.
Jamal Ahmad, 20, who died at the hospital at the end of November, was the most recent victim. While dengue is in almost all cases a disease that can be effectively treated, most deaths occur when it assumes its more dangerous haemorrhagic form, causing bleeding from body orifices.
"The likelihood of this developing is greater when a person is infected for a second time, with another strain of the disease," said Zaheer Akbar, a practitioner. "Panic about dengue is quite high because at this time of year many people get sick with fever and there is often concern it may be dengue."
According to Zia-ur-Rehman, about 70 people are being treated for dengue in Lahore hospitals. "We must hope the rain now will eliminate dengue," he said.
Rain, usually expected at the start of winter, brings down temperatures and kills off the dengue-causing mosquito. The rains this year have come late.
The striped mosquito transmits dengue when it bites an infected person and then carries the infection to the next person it bites.
Dengue has occurred regularly in the country over the past three years, but winter in northern areas acts to end the cycle of disease that begins each year after the monsoon season, when pools of water offer breeding places.
Medicine
"My husband works as a security guard at a park. There are many mosquitoes there because of the lake. He got bitten last month, developed high fever and severe body pains, and doctors confirmed dengue. He was given some strong medicine, and now he is quite well," said Shahida Jabeen, 25. Her husband, Arshad Mahmood, now uses a home-made mosquito repellent when he goes to work. "The doctor told us to make a paste from the leaves of the neem tree. It is effective and cheap," said Shahida.
Neem (Azadirachta indica), a tree from the mahagony family, is widely believed to have multiple medicinal qualities. Its leaves are used in many herbal preparations and are also the subject of ongoing scientific study.
Increased awareness about dengue and the need to seek early treatment is a factor in keeping the death rate lower this year than in previous years.
kh/at/cb
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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