Health authorities beefed up precautionary measures in hospitals with confirmation of six-dengue patient in the city to control further spread. The provincial health officials feared return of vector-borne dengue fever virus with warm weather across the Punjab.
One Qadir Bakhsh from Sargodha is the most recent victim of dengue fever. He is presently under treatment at the Mayo Hospital. Earlier, another Muhammad Khalid from Chakwal was admitted to the Family Hospital with similar symptoms. It may be noted that some 1,240 cases of dengue fever were reported last year, in the Punjab province. There had also been six deaths.
According to health professionals, the dengue fever is spread by the bite of the striped Aedes Aegypti mosquito. Symptoms appear 3-14 days after the infective bite. Dengue fever is a febrile illness that affects infants, young children and adults. Symptoms range from a mild fever to an incapacitating high fever with severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and a rash.
They said that there are no specific antiviral medicines for dengue and the use of acetylsalicylic acid (such as aspirin) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (such as ibuprofen) is not recommended. The most important advice is to drink lots of water. Occasionally, people suffering from dengue bleed from the nose, gums or skin, which often indicates dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), which is potentially lethal and affects children mostly, they added.
According to WHO, the incidence of dengue has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades. Some 2.5 billion people - two fifths of the world's population - are now at risk from dengue. WHO currently estimates there may be 50 million dengue infections world-wide every year. A spokesman of Health Department Punjab has said that except one patient in Mayo Hospital there is no other dengue fever patient is under treatment in any other government hospitals in Lahore.
The spokesman further said that the under treatment patient namely Qadir Bakhsh son of Muhammad Bakhsh in Mayo Hospital belongs to Sargodha. Whereas, another patient Muhammad Khalid son of Muhammad Yousaf resident of Chakwal is admitted in Family Hospital Mozang Lahore.
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