KARACHI: The provincial health authorities on Friday confirmed the death of a woman suffering from mosquito-borne haemorrhagic fever at a government hospital in the city.

With more than 2,500 people in Sindh afflicted with dengue virus thus far this year, the death toll has reached seven.

Nighat, 42, was admitted to a government hospital five days ago where she died on Friday.

“She was the seventh dengue victim to die this year in Sindh,” said a senior official in the provincial health ministry.

The victim, a resident of Shah Faisal Colony, was brought to the hospital in a precarious condition, said the officials.

So far, officials said, 2,517 cases of dengue virus had been reported from across the province.

Expired insecticide

The officials said more than 60 per cent of dengue patients who died were aged between 20 and 34 years. Some 20 per cent the victims were 35 years or above, while the rest were children or teenagers.

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) claimed that it had initiated a ‘comprehensive programme’ to check the ever-threatening dengue germ though sources said a large quantity of insecticide was expired.

Alpha Cypermethrin, the insecticide used with diesel to kill the deadly mosquito, remained unused for three years in KMC stores and expired in September last year, the officials said.

A litre of insecticide requires 40 litres of diesel for a day’s fumigation in any selected neighbourhood and in case of no fumigation, one could save those 40 litres of fuel and such fortune grows bigger depending on the number of fumigation trucks.

The so-called state of ‘dengue emergency’ imposed by the Karachi commissioner is termed a ‘statement for public consumption’ by the relevant authorities in the health ministry.

Moreover, despite the government’s claim about an effective awareness campaign, the fact on ground is that the dengue prevention and control programme in Sindh is on a virtual halt.

The hefty funds allocated for it have already lapsed pending a cumbersome process of revalidation while the project is facing the brunt of the contractors who had provided the medicines without getting their payment in advance.

Sources in the health ministry said the programme had been given a short shrift for the past two years despite the lethal disease perished many lives and contracted thousands of people – a dominant majority of them resided in Karachi.

Last year, at least 1,295 cases of dengue fever reported in Sindh and of them 1,277 victims belonged to Karachi. Some 17 dengue patients died.

Some officials in the KMC said their teams had detected the mosquito’s larva in at least 10 per cent shops in Pak Colony and Shershah neighbourhoods of Karachi west district. Large swathes of the city’s eastern neighbourhoods, including Korangi, Bin Qasim and Malir, too, were cause of concern due to detection of larva, they said.

The authorities identified facilities such as tyre puncture shops, car service stations, tyre warehouses and swimming pools etc as the potential breeding grounds for the deadly mosquito.

The fumigation campaigns had little or no effect until fogging machines were introduced to cover every nook and corner of an affected area or house, the officials said.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2015

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