In pursuance of directions of the Punjab Chief Minister Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif, the provincial health authorities are devising an effective strategy to fight dengue and polio in the province following increase in the number of dengue and polio cases in the province.
The Chief Minister has also taken serious notice of reports with regard to insufficient arrangements in different hospitals of Lahore, which is hampering the treatment of dengue fever patients. Sources claimed that the Chief Minister has taken notice of resurgence of cases of polio in the province and also formed a body to look into such cases.
Although, the health authorities are claiming that not a single death was reported in the Punjab due to dengue fever, but the death of Imran Raza Farooqi (19), a BA student and a resident of Mozang Road, raised many questions. Imran was suspected of suffering from dengue fever.
Sources told Business Recorder, here on Saturday that different city hospitals are not equipped to conduct dengue fever tests because the blood samples of suspected dengue fever patients are sent to the Institute of Public Health.
However, a spokesman of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said that the facility of conducting dengue fever tests is available in the hospital and all out facilities are being provided to dengue patients admitted in the hospital.
Contrary to official claims, a good number of suspects of dengue fever are admitted in different city hospitals and so far, sources claimed that 124 patients had been confirmed dengue positive after diagnostic tests. Sources claimed that the authorities are not taking the situation seriously, as no concrete steps have so far been taken to control the spread of dengue fever in the City.
Neither any fumigation has been launched in the City nor civic authorities have taken necessary steps for cleanliness in the provincial capital particularly after the start of mosquito breeding season. Residents of different localities including Shadbagh, Poonch Road, Mozang, Shaukat Town Ghazi Road, Singhpura, Islampura etc, have demanded fumigation in their areas apart from improving sewerage system so as to save people from dengue fever.
It may be mentioned that dengue fever patients started arriving in city hospitals from September this year with the onset of mosquito breeding season while last year over 270 patients were confirmed dengue fever positive and they had lost immunity against the disease.
Health professionals are of the view that dengue fever was a curable disease yet there were chances that it could become complicated and only one-percent chance that it could become life-threatening. They asked the people to undergo diagnostic tests on feeling 'bone-breaking' pain/fever.
If the dengue disease is diagnosed in initial stages and treated properly, it can be cured. More than 95 percent dengue fever patients have recovered within two weeks of infection. Occasionally, dengue fever can result in complication, the dengue hemorrhagic fever, which leads to bleeding from gums, nose, bowel and into internal organs, is very severe and even fatal, due to deficiency of platelets in the blood, they added.
Regarding symptoms of the disease, they said that bleeding from mouth and nose in fever were symptoms of dengue hemorrhagic fever. They added dengue fever cures with just symptomatic treatment while the vaccine to prevent dengue fever is yet to be discovered. Nevertheless, dengue virus is transmitted into the human body when a particular type of infected mosquito bites someone. When similar type of uninfected mosquitoes bite an infected human, they get infected and transmit the virus to other humans.
Answering a question, the health professionals said that only two types of mosquito, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, are responsible for cases of dengue transmission. Aedes are relatively big black mosquitoes with white spots on their body. They are found mainly in homes and live in clean water.
They prefer to suck human blood as their food. One can get dengue virus infection from the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected when they bite infected humans, and later transmit infection to other people they bite. An infected person can transmit the virus to mosquitoes within 3-4 days of being bitten and can continue to do so up to 12 days, they added.
About types of dengue, they said that there are four types of viruses that cause dengue fever. The most fatal and severe one of them is the dengue hemorrhagic fever. In fact, dengue hemorrhagic fever is a complication of common dengue fever.
The symptoms of all four types of dengue fevers appear to be the same at initial stages of dengue illness, which can be cured with proper medication within two weeks of illness. Dengue hemorrhagic fever mostly targets infants and children below 15 years of age. However, dengue hemorrhagic fever has affected adults as well. A person can not be immune to other types of dengue and will, in fact, be at risk of developing severe symptoms if they contract another type of dengue more than once.
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