PAKISTAN: New effort to check rapid spread of dengue virus

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Pastor Dale Morgan

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Oct 30, 2006, 4:27:09 PM10/30/06

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*Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases
*

*PAKISTAN: New effort to check rapid spread of dengue virus*

30 Oct 2006 18:00:32 GMT
Source: IRIN

ISLAMABAD, 30 October (IRIN) - Pakistani health authorities have stepped
up efforts to contain the rapid spread of dengue fever, which has killed
at least 30 and hospitalised thousands across the country since early
September.

New moves to check the mosquito-borne virus include free diagnosis and
treatment at public hospitals, officials said on Monday.

"Since there is no cure available, only public health preventive
measures can contain further spread of the virus. Also, a mass awareness
campaign has been expanded and authorities have been providing bed nets
and insecticides in localities worst affected," Dr Kamran Jalil, a
medical officer at the National Institute of Health (NIH) said in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"A total of 2,009 suspected cases of dengue fever have so far been
reported in various hospitals across the country, out of which 596 have
been confirmed as positive," Syed Anwar Mehmood, the federal health
secretary said in a press briefing on Sunday.

The southern port city of Karachi has the highest number of suspected
cases: 1,735, with some 512 people found positive.

Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever are endemic in Pakistan, according
to the World Health Organization (WHO), with occasional outbreaks
reported in previous years.

The UN health body has been providing technical support to enhance the
disease surveillance capacity of national and local health authorities,
particularly in the southern Sindh province.

The WHO will also provide 1,000 diagnostic kits to hospitals across the
country to ensure that those suspected of having the disease are being
provided with adequate medical facilities to diagnose the disease.

In neighbouring India, an outbreak of dengue fever has claimed at least
139 lives across the country, with nearly 10,000 people affected by the
mosquito-borne illness since the epidemic took hold in early September.