11 die of dengue at allied hospitals so far

Rawalpindi:As many as 11 patients have died of dengue fever here at the three teaching hospitals in town including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital, formerly known as DHQ Hospital, within the last three-and-a-half weeks.

However, according to the district health authority Rawalpindi, six patients have so far died of dengue fever from the district this year whereas no death due to dengue fever has so far been reported from the federal capital this year according to the district health office Islamabad. According to details, as many as eight patients have so far died of dengue fever at HFH, two at BBH and one at RTH.

Another alarming fact is that the incidence of Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome, more fatal forms of the infection is recording an alarming increase this year among dengue fever patients being tested positive as around 49 per cent of all patients tested positive so far for dengue fever here at the three teaching hospitals in town suffered either from DHF or DSS.

Data collected by ‘The News’ on Thursday has revealed that the number of dengue fever patients reaching the three allied hospitals for management has been on a continuous increase as in the last 24 hours, another 110 patients have tested positive for the infection at the allied hospitals including 50 at HFH, 47 at BBH and 13 at RTH.

The number of dengue fever patients undergoing treatment at the allied hospitals on Thursday morning was 272 including 154 patients admitted in the last 24 hours. It is important to mention that the HFH, BBH and RTH have discharged as many as 149 dengue fever patients in the last 24 hours.

Data reveals that a total of 2,331 dengue fever patients have so far been confirmed positive at the three allied hospitals this year including 1,236 at HFH, 777 at BBH and 318 at RTH. It is important that the allied hospitals have so far registered a total of 16700 patients in outdoor patient departments of which 3,349 were admitted to the hospitals for management, however 2,331 were tested positive for the infection after dengue serology.

It is worth mentioning here that around 46 per cent of the total confirmed dengue fever patients at the allied hospitals were diagnosed with dengue haemorrhagic fever while three per cent were found to be with dengue shock syndrome, a more dangerous form of the infection. To date, out of a total of 2,331 dengue fever patients confirmed positive for the infection at the HFH, BBH and RTH, as many as 1,065 were diagnosed with DHF while 81 were suffering from DSS.