Dengue virus claims another life in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Another patient reportedly died of dengue virus in the provincial capital on Monday.

The deceased was identified as Tila Mohammad, 45, a resident of Sheikh Mohammadi village. He was admitted to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) a few days ago.

In Peshawar, the number of dengue patients has reached 1,243 and it has so far claimed five lives. Though Director General Health Services Dr Arshad Ahmad had presented a completely different picture to the chief minister a few days ago and made him a laughing stock.

The chief minister had threatened to take action against those spreading rumours about dengue and claimed that the dengue investigations were done in Islamabad only.

According to his family members, Tila Mohammad was suffering from fever and was taken to the LRH where he was diagnosed with dengue. He remained in the hospital for four days where the doctors utilised all their resources but couldn’t save his life.

He was a hawker and is survived by a widow, five daughters and two sons. Mohammad Asim, a media manager of the LRH, however claimed that he died of other complications. Tila Mohammad was the fifth person who reportedly died of dengue in Peshawar.

His relatives and fellow hawkers appealed to Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to announce compensation for his family as he was the lone breadwinner.

Before him, three people died of dengue in Peshawar’s Mushtarzai area while a woman died in the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH).

Mohammad Javed, former nazim Mushtarzai Union Council, claimed three people of his area had died of dengue while hundreds of others were suffering from the mosquito-borne disease.

He complained that the government instead of helping the people of the affected areas had been denying outbreak of the disease.

Hundreds of people have been suffering from dengue virus in different districts of the province. The disease was first reported in rural areas of Peshawar but the provincial Health Directorate responded to the outbreak quite late that aggravated the situation.

The three tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar, LRH, KTH and HMC have frequently been receiving patients from suburbs of Peshawar, including Mushtarzai, Sheikhan, Badaber, Sufaid Dheri and Bara Road.

The government recently formed the Dengue Response Unit to collect data on the dengue from all the districts and share it with media, but it is yet to do so.?