KARACHI, Oct 25: In conformity with historical record over the years, October proved to be more lethal than other months of a year vis-à-vis dengue fatalities that climbed to six with the confirmation of two more deaths in Karachi and Hyderabad on Friday.

This year’s death toll from dengue rose to 18 in Sindh since May 30 when the first such death had been confirmed, officials said.The two recent victims who fell victim to dengue included a 70-year-old man from Gulistan-i-Jauhar and an 18-year-old resident of Hyderabad, according to an official of the Sindh dengue surveillance cell.

The officials said both victims had been admitted to private hospitals on Oct 21 where the elderly man died on Thursday and the teenager a day later.

Friday’s was the second death reported from Hyderabad where previously a 40-year-old dengue patient had died on Aug 27.

With these fatalities, October became the month of the year with most casualties as had been historically witnessed over the years since 2005 when the dengue virus started to inflict the Sindh’s urban population with more intensity. Until Friday, August was considered the deadliest month with five deaths — four in Karachi and one in Hyderabad — from dengue. All the five victims died in the last week of August.

The city witnessed the deaths of this year’s youngest and the oldest victims of dengue in October as the disease in recent days claimed the life of a three-year-old girl from North Karachi, an 11-year-old boy from Landhi, a 12-year-old girl from Keamari, a 26-year-old man from Korangi and a 70-year-old man from Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

The number of confirmed dengue cases in Sindh has already surpassed 3,100 out of which more than 2,700 have been reported from Karachi.

Sindh’s second largest city, Hyderabad, too, is facing a disturbingly higher incidence of the disease this year where 369 cases have been reported until now.

The disease has mildly affected 12 secondary cities of the province as well as Thatta is a distant third with six confirmed cases so far.

This year’s figure is fast approaching the 3,382 confirmed cases, which were reported in 2010. Last year more than 700 cases of dengue fever were reported out of which four people, including a woman, died. In 2011, some 858 dengue cases and 16 deaths from dengue were reported from Karachi.

Of the 18 victims so far this year, eight were female, including four minor girls. The aggregate age of the victims is 27 years.

The ministry of national health services lately reported that more than 36,000 cases of dengue were detected during the past three years in the country.

According to the documents submitted to the parliament, 11,040 cases were reported in 2010, 24,210 cases in 2011 and 970 cases were reported last year.

However, it is yet to compile this year’s figures, which too are alarming, particularly in Sindh and the country’s northwest, which is equally infested with the lethal virus.

Of the 160 people who have died of the tropical disease in Sindh since 2005, more than 60 per cent were aged between 20 and 34 years. Some 20 per cent of them were 35 years or above, while the rest were children or teens.

The worst year with most deaths because of the disease was 2006 when officials confirmed 49 fatalities, followed by 2010 when 20 deaths were recorded. With the alarming pace of fatalities, this year is feared to cross the death toll of 2010.

The local authorities here have identified North Nazimabad, SITE, Clifton Cantonment, Saddar Town, North Karachi and New Karachi as the ‘vulnerable areas’ and decided to give them ‘special attention’.

Transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes, the disease is occurring more widely due to increased movement of people and goods — including carrier objects such as bamboo plants and used tyres — as well as floods linked to climate change, the United Nations agency said.

The viral disease, which affected only a handful of areas in the 1950s, is now present in more than 125 countries — significantly more than malaria, historically the most notorious mosquito-borne disease.

Last year trials showed that the most advanced vaccine against dengue is only 30 per cent effective.