PESHAWAR: The first overnight winter rain has reduced the number of patients of dengue haemorrhagic fever as experts believe that with the onset of cold season the vector-borne disease would fully subside.

On Wednesday, only 16 patients were hospitalised and 46 were sent home after recovery, according to news release issued by dengue response unit. “Currently, 97 people are being treated at the hospitals,” it said.

According to experts, dengue fever has claimed 70 lives since its outbreak in mid-July but the rain brought down temperature to 14 degree centigrade that would lead to ultimate disappearance of the virus when it touches 10 degree.

They say that mosquitoes breed in hot weather but die in winter. They add that temperature would further drop and people would get relief from the disease which has infected over 20,000 patients with 70 deaths in the province.

Experts say disease will be eliminated when temperatures drop further

Khyber Teaching Hospital, which receives bulk of the patients owing to its proximity with three highly endemic union councils, is planning to shut the OPD specially launched for dengue patients in the first week of August. Now the hospital received only 50 suspected patients and eight of them were admitted.

The eight-room OPD was receiving about 1,500 to 2,000 patients per day during the past three months.

“The OPD will stop operations next week if temperature drops further,” say physicians. However, the hospital has made alternative arrangements to examine suspected dengue patients.

“So far, we screened 80,786 suspected dengue patients and 18,067 of them were confirmed,” KTH spokesman Farhad Khan told Dawn. He said that they had admitted 4,785 patients during the outbreak and 4,727 of them were treated and discharged.

“We have deployed eight doctors in the OPD. They examine suspected patients round-the-clock,” said Mr Khan. He said that they had allocated eye, ENT, skin and psychiatry wards to dengue patients in addition to medical wards where half of the beds were occupied by them.

Dr Iftikharuddin, an expert, told Dawn that number of dengue cases had already been showing downward trend as a result of the campaigns by district government and health department during which houses in the infected areas were cleaned.

He said that the ongoing spell of rain helped them in bringing down the disease. He added that it would be totally eliminated when the temperature dropped.

“The monsoon rain from June to August exacerbates the breeding of mosquitoes due to warmth in the environment but the winter rain kills them. We hope that the disease will vanish very soon,” said Dr Iftikhar. However, he said that they should show no laxity as the virus could re-appear next year in March if they failed to destroy larvae.

“To ensure that people stay safe from the ailment next year, we have been working on a six-month plan under which campaigns are underway in endemic districts to convince the people to eliminate larvae inside their houses,” said Dr Iftikhar. He added that health department issued guidelines to all districts to identify breeding sites of dengue larva and respond promptly.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2017