Fretting over the increasing death toll owing to dengue fever in the city, foreign students, enrolled in various educational institutions of the city, have starting leaving Pakistan, Pakistan Today learnt on Sunday.
Most foreign students have taken a long leave from their varsities until the winter season sets in. The varsity administrations claim that foreigners took this decision after a number of them were diagnosed dengue positive.
A good number of foreign students are enrolled in various disciplines at University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Fatima Jinnah Medical College (FJMC), University of the Punjab, King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC) and Beaconhouse National University (BNU) among other institutions. Majority of them stay in varsity hostels.
Many of the foreign students living in local varsity hostel had been infected with dengue. The students had asked varsity administration to provide them with dengue protection as they could not take anti-dengue measure on a large scale personally. As many as 15 foreign students residing at Punjab University (PU) hostels were infected with dengue allegedly owing to the administrations negligence in spraying hostels.
Unsatisfied with varsity administrations efforts to curb dengue, the foreigners decided to leave the country. Although the Punjab government closed educational institutions for ten days in a bid to fumigate and spray hostels for dengue, foreigners decided to leave for their home towns. According to PU officials, a number of foreigners had applied for a month’s leave. Students from Nepal, Sri Lanka, and African countries have opted to stay out of country than to stay and fight the disease.
A FJMU medical student said usually foreign students stayed back even during Eid holidays as they did not want to waste time commuting between their houses and the varsity, however dengue had ensured they leave. She said that it was thought that foreigners were easy victims to dengue. She showed concern over the loss of lives and varsity closure owing to dengue.
A PU student from Nepal said that they had been facing various issues regarding dengue as more than a dozen foreigners had got fever. He said that dengue was dangerous as the patient required care that only one’s family could provide. He said that only five students from Nepal had gone back while others were planning to go home soon.
