Daily Times

KARACHI: Poor drainage system and lack of garbage disposal is keeping Karachi among top districts in Sindh in mosquito-borne diseases among which dengue fever is on the top of the list. The Provincial Prevention and Control Program for Dengue report issued on Friday disclosed that since January this year, 932 cases of dengue fever were reported in Sindh, out of which 858 cases were reported in provincial capital city of Karachi. In the same period, one patient succumbed to the disease

Bringing out 32 weeks report, Dr Masood Solangi, head of the Dengue Control and Surveillance Programme in Sindh, admitted the failure of the department in control the diseases and said that in Karachi, since 2010, pockets of mosquito vectors have developed, which have not been cleared. “Due to the mosquito vectors, Karachi is witnessing regular cases of dengue since then,” he added.

“There is no drainage of water and garbage, that’s why mosquitoes are born. Dengue mosquitoes are only in Karachi,” said Dr Solangi while talking to Daily Times. According to report, Hyderabad remained second with 20 dengue cases. Among others, Sukkur and Larkana shared 06 cases each, Ghotki 05 and Tando Muhammad Khan, Khairpiur and Mirpurkhas shared 04 cases each.

On the other hand, three cases each were reported in Dadu, Tharparkar and Shaheed Benazirabad districts. Similarly two cases each were reported in Badin, Thatta, Jamoshoro, Umerkot, Sanghar and Naushehroferoz districts.

However, according to Dr Solangi, dengue could be called Karachi-specific disease in Sindh and many patients are native to different districts but they visited Karachi, therefore they were reported in the city. About the cure, he said, “Dengue patient could be treated in case of early diagnoses. Due to awareness among masses, dengue deaths have declined. For instance death ratio of dengue is much lesser than 10 years ago,” Dr Solangi added. “In normal cases, people having fever used to take antibiotics medicine which is dangerous for dengue patients,” he said.

According to the official record of Sindh Health Department, in 2015, around 3,600 cases were reported in Sindh. Pakistan is among 110 countries where Dengue is found and every year around 25,000 cases are reported worldwide.