karachi: The health authorities in Sindh on Thursday conceded that three more people had died due to complications of dengue in Karachi during the current month, raising the total number of deaths in the city to 30.
Meanwhile, 297 persons tested positive for dengue in the city during the last 24 hours in the city as per the official statistics.
However, experts in private sector hospitals say the number of deaths due to dengue could be five times more than the official figures as several people had been dying daily because of the vector borne disease.
“Three more people have lost their lives due to dengue fever at different health facilities in the current month and now the total number of deaths in Karachi because of dengue fever is 30. No person has been reported dead due to dengue fever in any other part of Sindh so far,” an official of the Sindh health department said on Thursday.
Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho has also expressed concern on the authenticity of the official data of dengue cases and deaths. She said the data of people dying at their homes due to complications of dengue was not being gathered while many hospitals and labs were not providing the data of cases to the health department on a daily basis.
“Situation of data collection has improved since I warned that all those labs and hospitals would be sealed which would not provide data to the health department but many are still not cooperating. The Sindh Healthcare Commission and health department officials are making efforts to make the data more accurate,” she told newsmen at a conference at the University of Karachi.
Regarding the new dengue cases, health officials said that as many as 297 more people had tested positive for dengue in Karachi during the last 24 hours whereas a total of 402 people tested positive for the mosquito-borne disease in the province in the last 24 hours.
“Around 297 people have been tested positive for dengue fever in Karachi during last 24 hours including 82 in district East, 66 in Central, 86 in district Korangi, 25 in South, 11 in West, 25 in Malir and 2 in Kemari,” an official of the Sindh health department said quoting the daily official data of dengue cases in Sindh.
The official maintained that in the current month, so far 3,843 dengue cases had been reported from Karachi alone, and the total number of dengue cases in the provincial capital has reached 6,050 in the current year.
The official maintained that the second highest number of dengue cases in Sindh during last 24 hours was reported from Hyderabad where 59 persons tested positive for the viral disease.
“So far, 6,888 dengue fever cases have been reported from entire Sindh this year while 4,319 cases have been reported in the 22 days of the current month,” the official said.