The deadly dengue virus continued to spread in Islamabad and Rawalpindi as National Institute of Health here on Thursday confirmed 291 dengue positive cases in the twin cities while the death toll rose to four and over 8,000 people were reported to be affected by the virus across the country.
The official data available with Pakistan Today confirmed that dengue had very badly hit Lahore where over 6,670 people were affected by the virus. Among the provinces, the Punjab stands first with total 7,516 cases.
The NIH here on Thursday confirmed 163 dengue positive cases from Islamabad and 128 from Rawalpindi and four deaths, two from each city.
According to the data, Sindh received 280 positive cases, KP 95 with five deaths, AJK 10 and FATA four positive cases. Despite the fact that the situation in the capital has turned into epidemic, the major hospitals are busy denying the official data of the NIH. According to the NIH, they tested total 163 positive patients from the Islamabad hospitals whereas Polyclinic claimed they had received only 22 confirmed patients and eight were still hospitalised.
When contacted, Polyclinic spokesperson Dr Sharif Astori told Pakistan Today that they had received total 80 suspected patients out of whom only 22 proved positive with dengue virus while eight were admitted to the dengue cell of the hospital. He said, “We are going to set up a separate centre to handle dengue patients.”
It is important to mention here that the capital city developers claimed that they had completed fumigation drives, but dengue cases were increasing every day.
Though the situation in the capital is getting worse, blood cell separators, incubators and refrigerators at the PIMS are dysfunctional. In order to conceal its efficiency, the government has asked the NIH not to share dengue-related data with the media.
Dengue continues to spread as 291 cases confirmed in twin cities
