Daily Times

KARACHI: It seems that the tall claims regarding prevention from the deadly dengue fever has no legitimacy as the top most and the most powerful Grade-20 officer of the Sindh government has fallen victim to the virus, Daily Times has learnt.

According to the sources, Secretary Education and Literacy, who is also the brother-in-law of former president Asif Zardari, Dr Fazalullah Pechuho, got severe fever while sitting at office few days ago. He was shifted to Aga Khan Hospital for proper medical checkup where he was diagnosed of dengue fever.

“Secretary Education and Literacy Dr Fazalullah Pechuho is under treatment at the Aga Khan Hospital and his condition is stated to be stable”, sources added.

Interestingly on the same day, Secretary Health Usman Chachar informed the chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, that some 1713 cases of dengue have been reported in Sindh, out of them 1510 cases are in Karachi with three resulting in deaths, 68 in Hyderabad and 84 in Tharparkar.

The meeting, held at Chief Minister’s House on Monday, was presided over by CM Murad Ali Shah and attended by Minister Health Dr Sikandar Mendhro, Secretary Health Usman Chachar and other senior officers of health department.

The minister health said that in Thar presently around 88 cases have been reported, of them 84 were treated in Hyderabad and sent back home. Only four patients which are in stable condition are in LMC Hyderabad.

Giving reasons of the spread of dengue in Tharparkar, Dr Sinkandar Mendhro said that people in Thar store water in tanks and earthen pots. The dengue mosquito lays eggs in that clean and stored water which the villagers use for drinking and other purposes. He also added that dengue has also been detected in Karachi. The people of Thar who work in Karachi visit their villages frequently and they also dengue infection back to their villages.

The health minister said that Dengue Control Program Manager Dr Masood Solanagi had taken the sample of water stored in different areas of Karachi, including of zoo and found millions of lorvea (dengue seedlings). They have killed them by pouring chemical into their tanks and now it is safe to some extent.

Secretary health told the chief minister that the Dengue Control Program administration has purchased 17000 kits and have started distributing them in the affected areas. ‘Dengue is not a fatal disease. A normal person has 300,000 platelets. When a person suffers from dengue he feels abdominal pain, vomiting, breathing difficulty and his blood platelets start decreasing. Its treatment is simple as the treatment of normal fever but has to maintain the platelets of the patient. When the platelets of the patient drops down to 20,000 the patient starts bleeding and that’s when it becomes fatal. This is why the government is trying to provide test kits to hospitals.

After the briefing, the CM directed health department to take necessary measure to provide timely treatment to the dengue patients and also issued directives to commissioners and local bodies for extensive fumigation in Karachi, Hyderabad and Thar.