Health experts confused about dengue transmission season.

ISLAMABAD -- Experts are not certain if the season of dengue disease has ended in the federal capital.

Moreover, Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has on a number of occasions warned Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) chief Fazlur Rehman to beware of dengue.

'We have done fumigation in the area where participants of Azadi March may stay due to which hopefully the disease would not spread to the residents,' National Health Services (NHS) Secretary Dr Allah Bakash Malik told Dawn.

Dengue season has almost ended in the federal capital but there is a general perception that participants of the Azadi March coming from Karachi can become a reason for the spread of the disease once again.

Majority of the mosquitoes don't carry dengue virus but if once they bite a patient suffering with dengue they start transmitting the virus to other persons. As the disease appears in a person in a week after a mosquito bite, the participants coming from Karachi, where dengue is still at a peak, can become a reason for the spread of the disease.

A health expert requesting not to be quoted said dengue mosquito becomes inactive whenever temperature drops below 21 degrees Celsius.

'The mosquito dies if the temperature drops below 14 degrees Celsius. Though it is true that a number of participants of Azadi March can have dengue in the next few days, the local residents should not get panicked. Technically, dengue transmission has ended in the federal capital,' he said.

'Unless we observe a volt-turn in the weather and it once again becomes warmer, dengue mosquito cannot survive. Moreover, because of the sudden drop in the temperature, mosquitoes have taken refuge in houses. If the participants of the Azadi March remain in the open air they don't have to fear from dengue,' he said.

However, some experts feared that dengue can be...