Dengue epidemic-its hanging sword still continues to trouble people.

Dengue epidemic, in Pakistanis has spread its tentacles in almost all parts of of the country, particularly in major urbanized hubs and thickly populated cities , with each passing year due to multiple factors.

In comparison to other parts of the country, this year the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have been badly hit by the dengue epidemic. The outbreak still continues to trouble the residents as a large number of dengue admitted patients could be seen in almost all hospitals of these cities.

According to the NHRC reports, the dengue cases reported in the twin cities make up more than 40 percent of the total reported cases from across the country.

The focal person for dengue fever at the National Institute of Health, Dr Rana Safdar said that more than 20,000 cases of dengue fever have been reported across the country. He said that most of these cases have been reported from the under developed areas of these cities.

According to the Ministry of National Health Service, Regulations and Coordination (NHRC), more than 21,000 dengue cases have been reported across the country. Out of which, 4,800 dengue patients were reported in Islamabad followed by 4700 in Punjab. The number of dengue patients reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 4,300; whereas, 3,600 patients have been reported in Sindh, and 2,700 in Balochistan and around 800 dengue fever patients have been reported in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The symptoms of the disease as pointed out by medical experts while talking to this scribe are body aches, muscle pain, fatigue and high fever. migraines, vomiting and high temperature.

A dengue patient Hina Naz said that soon after the attack of the mosquito, 'I felt like being paralyzed as I could not move my limbs due to the severity of body aches, muscle pain, fatigue and high fever.' Another dengue patient, Muddasar Iqbal, who remained bed ridden for about two weeks said, 'It was really hard to go through the pain of the disease due to persistent migraines, vomiting and high temperature.'

According to World Health Organization (WHO), there are three stages of dengue fever starting with a flu-like illness to hemorrhagic conditions associated with failure of internal organs leading to severe consequences. The WHO preventive measures included wiping out the egg-laying places of mosquito through water control, proper covering of water, using insecticides and fumigating the areas for curbing the mosquito population.

A General Physician at Lady...

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