LAHORE, Aug 17: The Institute of Public Health (IPH) in its PCR report released on Friday declared that the two patients admitted to the Mayo Hospital were not suffering from dengue fever.

It was the third laboratory analysis performed on two suspected dengue fever patients – Umar, 17, of Shahdara, and Tanzeela, 16, of Shadbagh. They were admitted to the Mayo Hospital on July 24 and Aug 6 respectively with the complaint of rising temperature and low platelet counts.

A senior doctor at the Mayo Hospital told Dawn that the IPH report had made the case of two suspected dengue patients more mysterious. He said earlier the Centre for Applied Molecular Biology (CAMB) Laboratory located near Thokar Niaz Baig had performed Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test on the two patients and declared that they were suffering from dengue virus.

The blood samples were dispatched by a team of World Health Organization (WHO) experts to the CAMB after the result of the NS-I test carried out by the hospital administration was found negative.

He said the blood samples were sent to the IPH for PCR analysis on Thursday and the report was released on Friday morning, which had created doubts on its authenticity.

“It seems that some officials in the health and other departments are repeating the mistakes by concealing facts just as they did during the epidemic last year,” he said. He, however, added that the CAMB had achieved ISO certification and was known as an authentic institution of research and diagnosis.

IPH Dean Prof Muaz Ahmad did not attend call when this reporter tried to seek his version.