RAWALPINDI – As many as 22 female students lost consciousness due to anti-dengue fumigation carried out in Government Girls High Secondary School in Jhelum district on Saturday. Hundreds of students were present inside the school when the spray was conducted by the local administration. The parents of affected students rushed to the school, alleging that the authorities ignored necessary precautions when it fumigated the school. The affected students were shifted to a nearby hospital. Previously, dozens of school girls fell unconscious in September last year in the same district. The virus, borne by mosquitos which breed in stagnant water, has killed hundreds of people in Pakistan since 2011. There is no treatment for dengue, which causes symptoms including fever, severe joint pain, headaches and bleeding. About half the world’s population is at risk from the mosquito-borne disease, which sickens about 100 million people every year in Asia, Africa and Latin America.