PAKISTAN: Dengue fever spreads north

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases

PAKISTAN: Dengue fever spreads north*

24 Oct 2006 17:28:27 GMT
Source: IRIN

RAWALPINDI, 24 October (IRIN) - An outbreak of the deadly dengue virus
in southern Pakistan has now spread to the north, partly because more
people have been travelling across the country for Eid, medical
officials say.

The four-day national Eid ul-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of
Ramadan, started on Tuesday and has seen thousands boarding trains,
buses or coaches to visit family or return home.

Microbiologist Dr Abbas Hayat, head of the pathology department at
Rawalpindi Medical College, close to the capital, Islamabad, expressed
apprehension that "as more and more people arrive from areas in Sindh
where the disease is endemic, there is a danger the epidemic will spread".

Mosquitoes spreading the disease have ended up in buses or trains
heading north; or those already infected with the virus in the south
have been bitten by local mosquitoes at their destination, causing the
disease to spread further.

Most often, the viral infection manifests itself as high fever, body
aches and joint pains and most victims recover within a fortnight.
However, in some cases, the disease takes the form of dengue
haemorrahagic fever, which can cause uncontrollable bleeding, leading to
death if not treated swiftly.

There have been cases in Peshawar, the capital of the North West
Frontier Province (NWFP), in the Islamabad and the city of Rawalpindi
that lies adjacent to it.

Hundreds of patients are in hospital in the Islamabad and Rawalpindi
areas and on Monday Rawalpindi saw its first confirmed death from the
disease.

Mehreen Bano, 14, a patient brought to the Cantonment General Hospital
(CGH) in Rawalpindi from the nearby village of Pindigheb, died within an
hour of being admitted. The girl was reported to have been suffering
high fever and nose bleeds for several days.

"Mehreen was brought to the hospital on Monday morning, but her
condition was severe and she died within half an hour," Dr Shafiqur
Rehman, the medical officer at the CGH, told IRIN. Out of 77 blood
samples sent for testing from the Rawalpindi area to the National
Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad, 14 have tested positive for the
dengue virus. It is believed dozens more, currently either in hospital
or discharged after initial treatment, could be suffering from the disease.

However, a severe shortage of testing kits at hospitals has made it
difficult to determine the numbers infected. Hospitals across the
country are currently demanding testing kits, with more and more
suspected patients coming in daily.

The long Eid break has added to the problems in acquiring new kits and
pharmaceutical companies involved in importing the kits say it could be
two weeks or longer before more can be brought in. "It is a case of
market dynamics. The demand is unusual and we were not ready for it,
Peshawar-based pharmacist Fazal Afzal said.

Health experts across the country have warned that the dengue epidemic
could assume still more serious proportions over the coming days, due to
a continuing lack of sufficient public awareness and a failure to take
measures to prevent breeding of the Aedes mosquito, which carries the virus.

The onset of colder weather, which would kill of the mosquitoes, is seen
as the main hope in stopping the rapid spread of the disease.

There have so far been 432 confirmed cases of dengue in the southern
port city of Karachi, the capital of the Sindh province. At least 12
people have died since the outbreak hit in mid-September, the World
Health Organization (WHO) has said. While more than 160 patients are
still hospitalised in Karachi, the epicentre of the mosquito-transmitted
epidemic. At least another 1,500 people in the province are thought to
be infected.

All hospitals in Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been placed on
high alert, and isolation wards have been set up at them for patients
showing symptoms of dengue.

kh/sc/jl