PESHAWAR: Dengue haemorrhagic fever is causing scare among the staff of Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) as two more patients, including a ward boy of the hospital, died of the disease on Sunday.

So far 50 dengue-affected people, including 42 at KTH, have died of the ailment since June when the disease broke out. Latest victims are Altaf Khan, 55, a resident of Pawaka, and Zahir Shah, 35, of Abdara village, said a statement issued by the Dengue Response Unit. It said that 350 patients tested positive of the total 1,370 and of them 112 were admitted.

Altaf Khan, a ward boy at KTH is the third employee to have fallen victim to the vector-borne ailment in the past two months. Over half a dozen employees, including doctors, nurses, paramedics and class-IV staff, have contracted the disease so far. Another ward boy is still admitted at the hospital which has recorded about 40 deaths so far. The hospital is responsible for the 90 per cent dengue-related admissions.

KTH has allocated 48-bed ENT-B ward, 43-bed Eye ‘A’ ward and 20 beds each at the skin and psychiatry wards to cope with the patients’ load, but the inflow of infected and suspected patients isn’t receding.

Hospital ward boy among two latest victims

The health department and Peshawar district government had focused their joint efforts on Tehkal locality due to which the number of cases has dropped. However, the disease is highly prevalent in villages of Sufaid Dheri, Achni, Pawaka and Abdara.

“From the past two weeks, majority of the cases are coming from localities other than Tehkal and apprehensions are that it can spread to the posh Hayatabad and University Town areas if immediate preventive measures aren’t taken,” a senior physician told Dawn.

He said that hospital employees were scared of the situation and in some cases avoided going near the patients after their colleagues contracted the disease. “The disease isn’t communicable and can spread only when an infected mosquito bites a person, but owing to rush of the patients the panic among the staffers is quite natural,” he said.

Most of the class-IV employees of the hospital are the residents of the surrounding areas where the outbreak is in full swing. The patients of the nearby localities are vulnerable to the ailment, but the concentration is on Tehkal where the mosquito first started infecting people.

The employees avoid unnecessary visits to the wards reserved for dengue patients at KTH and same is the case with medical students who visit the hospital for classes.

Officials at the health department told Dawn that they in collaboration with the deputy commissioner’s office have been carrying out spray and awareness campaign regarding prevention of the ailment.

Meanwhile, a press statement said that deputy commissioner Saqib Aslam Raza led a walk in Tehkal area where pamphlets and brochures about prevention of the disease were distributed. On this occasion, he asked the people to avoid storage of water and do away with breeding sites to stay safe from bites and the disease.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2017