Rawalpindi: The dengue fever outbreak here in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi is getting closer to its seasonal end as the three Rawalpindi Medical University allied hospitals in town tested only six patients positive for dengue fever in the last 24 hours.
Data collected by ‘The News’ on Sunday revealed that the number of patients being confirmed positive for the infection per day on average at the allied hospitals has dropped to below 10 after two months or so while the number of dengue patients undergoing treatment at the three teaching hospitals is also on the decline. On Sunday, less than 20 dengue patients were undergoing treatment at allied hospitals including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital.
Data also reveals that only 13 confirmed dengue fever patients were undergoing treatment at the allied hospitals on Sunday including six patients at HFH, five at BBH and two at RTH. Of the 13 confirmed admitted patients, as many as nine have been diagnosed with dengue haemorrhagic fever.
It is important that like the past 17 years, the fall in temperature is playing a vital role in controlling the outbreak. Health experts believe that the current trend of decline in the number of dengue fever patients is due to the cold spell that restricts mosquitoes’ activity particularly outside homes and offices.
In low temperature, mosquitoes including ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that causes dengue fever become unable to bite because of weak energy in joints that does not let them make a firm grip and mount on the body of a person for sucking blood.
In the last two weeks, the allied hospitals received a total of around 140 confirmed patients showing a significant decline in the number of patients though the seasonal close, according to many health experts, may take another week or so. Experts say that there may not be any case of the infection in December in this region of the country but it also depends on further fall in temperature. To date, the allied hospitals have tested a total of 2769 patients positive for dengue fever while the infection has claimed no life here at the three hospitals. Health experts say that individuals should follow preventive measures to avoid mosquito bites as the disease is still affecting the population.
