LAHORE, Nov 27: Twenty dengue cases were reported here on Thursday raising the total number over 1,200. Nine of them were admitted to Mayo Hospital, five to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and three each to Jinnah and Services Hospital. The disease has claimed six lives in Lahore in 2008.

Even though dengue cases are being reported from all parts of the city, the most cases are from Samanabad, Kot Khwaja Saeed, Misri Shah, Shadbagh, Ghoray Shah, Chah Miran, Badami Bagh, Shahdara, Sheranwala Gate, Mughalpura, localities along Bund Road, Gulshan-i-Ravi and Multan Road.

According to a study, the mortality rate of dengue is less than one per cent compared to 10 per cent of malaria and tuberculosis. The main symptoms of dengue are high fever, severe headache, backache, joint pains, nausea and vomiting besides eye pain and rash. If not properly treated, dengue may become hemorrhagic fever (DHF) that can be fatal.

The DHF could be characterised by a fever that lasted from two to seven days, with general signs and symptoms that could occur with many other illnesses like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and headache.

Doctors say the best preventive measure for residents living in areas infested with the mosquito, aedes aegypti, is to eliminate the places where it can lay eggs, primarily artificial water containers.

Plastic water container, buckets, used automobile tyres, pet and animal watering containers and vases with fresh flowers, indoor plants can be the breeding places for aedes aegypti.

Pet and animal watering containers and vases with fresh flowers and indoor plants should be emptied and scoured at least once a week. This would eliminate the mosquito eggs and larvae and reduce their number in these places.

The risk of being bitten by mosquitoes indoors could be reduced by utilisation of air-conditioners or properly screened windows and doors.

The doctors say that arrival of cold weather would help control the disease as aedes aegypti does not survive in it.

PMA: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has condemned the maltreatment of a doctor at the hands of a provincial secretary in Toba Tek Singh.

In a statement on Thursday it said act of the provincial environment secretary to detain Dr Sikandar Khan of the District Headquarters Hospital in a bathroom was “inhumane” and doctors would not tolerate it. The PMA urged the health secretary to probe into the incident.