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Updated on
Summary
The government has failed to control the rising threat of dengue fever as over 2,500 mosquito bitten people were brought to hospitals across Pakistan by Tuesday. Fifty patients have been admitted in Lahore hospitals during last 24 hours while 16 have been killed in Sindh due to dengue fever. The number of dengue patients in Punjab have reached 890. At least 18 teams are working in Lahore to control the epidemic. According to the officials, Punjab government had put all the hospital emergencies on alert over the dengue epidemic in the city. The Health Department had also asked the Anti-Malaria Departments of the City District governments and Pakistan Railways to conduct fumigation in their jurisdictions, including in Railway carriages to get rid of the deadly mosquitoes. Despite the rising death toll in dengue viral fever which is caused by a unique species of mosquito Aedes that throng on stagnant fresh water, the PIMS spokesman has kept optimism saying don't be scared even if the test comes out positive unless it has complications. However, the facts present a rather grave situation as there is no tested or approved vaccine for the dengue flavivirus. The National Institute of Health (NIH) is testing 11 vaccines to overcome the dengue epidemic, local media reported. Dengue was first recognized in the 1780s simultaneously in Asia, Africa and North America and is found in some 100 countries around the world. This life threatening disease is also known as break- bone fever that got its name from symptoms in which patients feel that all bones in the body are cracked from head to toe, besides vomiting, skin rashes and other symptoms.
