K & P

Mosquito-borne illness: First dengue patient diagnosed in Shangla

Even as winter sets in, number of cases spikes to 280

Our Correspondents October 17, 2014

SHANGLA/MINGORA:

Shangla district’s first dengue patient of the year was reported from Besham tehsil on Friday. However, Besham has treated another patient this year but one contracted dengue in Attock.

Dr Mansoor Ahmad Khan, focal person of the dengue unit in Besham Hospital, said Muhammad Hussain, a local police constable, was brought to the hospital and diagnosed with dengue. “He is now out of danger as he was brought to the hospital in time,” added Khan. “Strict measures against the disease have been taken in the district since the last two years.”

He said the first case treated in Shangla was from Attock. Karimullah, a resident of Besham, had gone to Attock to visit relatives when he contracted dengue but was admitted in Besham Hospital where he made a full recovery.

Khan said three people died of the fever last year.

In spite of the cold

The recent spell of cold weather in Swat has done little to curb dengue as three more patients were identified on Friday, pushing the count to 280.

According to Roshan Ali, the focal person at Saidu Teaching Hospital’s dengue unit, Zafar Ali, a resident of Guligram, Habibul Haq from Chakesar and Sher Ali from Faizabad tested positive for the dengue virus and are being kept at the hospital.

“Currently, 13 patients are hospitalised while 267 patients have been discharged after recovering,” said Ali.

Although it is believed that the Aedes aegypti mosquito which spreads the disease cannot survive cold weather, the temperature dip which followed snowfall and rain in the district earlier this week has not abated the increasing number of patients.

Last year, a dengue outbreak affected more than 9,000 people from Swat; 37 patients died according to official figures. The unofficial record, however, put the casualties at 63.

This year’s first suspected dengue case was reported on June 3 from Shahdara area of Baubzai tehsil. The district administration quickly jumped into action and conducted awareness drives and anti-dengue fumigation, thereby avoiding a repeat of last year’s epidemic.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2014.