HARIPUR, Aug 27: High-grade fever has broken out in various villages of district Haripur, with dozens of the villagers, including women and children, landing in different private and public sector hospitals.

However, local health authorities while playing down the issue said it was viral fever that breaks out every year in Haripur and elsewhere in the country.

According to information coming from Makhan, Dobandi, Jama villages and their surrounding localities situated alongside Daur River, a number of villagers have fallen victim to the fever during the last week and all the patients were having almost similar symptoms with temperature ranging from 102 to 104 degree, vomiting, sever body aches and few of them with reddish eyes and headache.

These patients, according to health department sources, were between 11 to 60 years of age.

It may be recalled that various areas of the district have been hit by dengue epidemic in recent past. Among the repeatedly hit areas were the villages of Pind Gujran, Rani Wah, Khoee Nara, Suraj Gali, Hattar, Shadi, Kotnajibullah, Kangra and Sera-e-Saleh.

When approached, District Health Information System Coordinator Dr Bilal confirmed the reports of high-grade fever in the Makhan village, but said it could not be dengue fever.

He said health department had started surveillance of all the fever-hit patients and collected blood samples of over 50 patients for malarial parasite and typhoid tests.

He further said any of the suspected case of dengue would be sent to the National Institute of Health for test. He, however, said that since the villagers were using water from open wells that might have been contaminated during the recent torrential rains and caused fever.

Dr Bilal said that water sample was also collected and sent to Ayub Teaching Hospital for analysis and determining the cause of fever.

Health Executive District Officer Dr Mohammad Idrees, when contacted, confirmed the report of the outbreak of fever but rejected any possibility of dengue epidemic.

Dr Idrees said fog spray had been carried out in the union councils that were hit by dengue and mosquito nets were distributed among the villagers, besides educating them about the safety measures.