Traffic police officials busy in spraying anti dengue mosquitoes spray in Lahore on Wednesday. – Online Photo

LAHORE: The dengue virus afflicting Lahore claimed four more lives, including a retired DSP and a boy, on Wednesday.

According to a report of the health department, 412 new dengue cases were confirmed officially in Punjab on Wednesday, 353 of them in Lahore alone.

The report said the number of dengue patients in the province had reached 5,000, including 4118 in Lahore.

Lahore City Traffic police Inspector Saad Azeem told Dawn that his 78-year-old father, retired DSP Syed Fazal Azeem died at the CMH after suffering from the fever for over two weeks as the platelet count continued to drop.

The Medical Director of Children’s Hospital, Prof Dr Ehsan Waheed Rathore, said Ali Ahmad, 14, had died of “dengue shock syndrome”, a severe form of the disease.

Dr Rathore said that the heart and lungs of the boy had stopped functioning owing to pericardial and pleural effusions. He said the boy had been kept in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital for three days and provided with treatment by senior doctors in accordance with WHO guidelines.

Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Prof Dr Javed Akram said Sharifan Bibi (55) of Nawab Town, who was tested positive for the dengue virus, died owing to low platelet counts which led to bleeding from different parts of her body.

A police constable died of meningitis at Jinnah Hospital, but some private television channels attributed the death to dengue fever.

Dr Akram said that police constable Abdul Haq had been diagnosed with acute bacterial meningitis.

Mohammad Faisal, 24, died of dengue shock syndrome at Services Hospital.

A government employee, Nadeem Raza, tested positive for dengue virus with low platelet counts at the Services Hospital and died on Tuesday night.