ISLAMABAD: The number of Dengue patients across the country crossed 50,000 on Saturday as health officials struggled to handle with the deadly epidemic on a mass scale. According to reports, at least 250 people have already died of dengue in different parts of the country over the past few weeks. The twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are the worst-hit areas. Health officials estimate that at least 25,000 people in the twin cities have tested positive for the dengue virus recently. In the two big hospitals of Islamabad alone, some 8,000 dengue cases have been identified. Last week, two people died of dengue in Karachi, taking the death toll of people dying from the deadly disease to 14 in the metropolis. Meanwhile, thousands more people reportedly tested positive for dengue in Punjab. Dubbed “breakbone fever”, dengue is one of the world’s leading mosquito-borne illnesses and infects tens of millions across the globe annually. Around half of the planet’s population live in at-risk areas, mainly in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Outbreaks have ravaged Southeast Asia this year, infecting hundreds of thousands and killing hundreds.