LAHORE – The menace of Dengue fever continues to haunt the Lahorites since seven more persons including two women lost their lives on Friday, taking the death toll to 150 till today. Ruthless Dengue virus forced hundreds of Lahorites to go to public sector and private healthcare centres for preliminary tests, confirming 583 new cases. So far, confirmed Dengue cases in Lahore alone have reached 20,891. Asma (17), resident of Icchra, breathed her last at Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Zahid Bashir (35) of Kachupura at Mayo Hospital, Uzma Tariq (35) and Abdul Rehman (55) at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital while Muhammad Iqbal (60) of Township, Shaukat Ali (50) and Muhammad Yasin (15) lost their lives at Jinnah Hospital.
Out of 583 new cases, 129 were tested positive for the deadly virus at Mayo Hospital, 77 at Jinnah Hospital, 44 at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, 38 at Shaikh Zayed Hospital, 34 at Institute of Public Health, 30 at Children’s Hospital, 29 at Services Hospital, 21 at Lahore General Hospital while the remaining were reported from other public sector hospitals and private healthcare centres in the City.
According to the Punjab health department, 464 new cases have been reported from across the province on Friday and out of these 379 are from Lahore. So far 12,379 Dengue cases have been reported in Punjab and out of these 10,904 are in Lahore. At present 1,478 patients are under treatment at various hospitals in the province including 1,151 in the City. Some 11,915 Dengue patients have been discharged from hospitals in the province after recovery including 10,525 in the City.
Briefing the newsmen at KEMU Auditorium, Director General Health Dr Aslam Chaudhry said the department had appointed 249 nurses at teaching hospitals in Lahore for better care of Dengue patients. KEMU Vice Chancellor Prof Asad Aslam Khan, Medical Superintendent Mayo Hospital Dr Zahid Pervaiz and officers of the health department were also present.
Dr Aslam Chaudhry said that case response indoor residual spray has been carried out in 194 houses of Dengue patients and 28 houses of surroundings in 49 union councils. He said 17,130 CBC tests had also been carried out. He said the department organised seminars and walks at four different places of Data Gunj Bakhsh, Ravi and Wahga Town on Friday for raising public awareness about Dengue fever and necessary precautionary measures. He said thousands of handbills and pamphlets inscribed with awareness messages had also been distributed from door to door in various towns. – Nation
