By IANS,
Islamabad : A recent outbreak of dengue fever in Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab has led to the death of at least 10 people and affected 2,256 others, an official report said Friday.
About 300 people took blood tests Thursday and around 200 of them were found to be dengue-affected, Xinhua reported citing statistics released by the National Institute of Health.
Dengue, spread by the bite of the Aedes mosquito, has been endemic in Pakistan for the last few years. It occurs mostly after the rainy season in July-August when pools of stagnant water serve as ideal mosquito breeding spots.
According to the statistics, there have been 2,256 confirmed cases of dengue in Punjab, 130 in Islamabad and neighbouring city Rawalpindi. In southern Sindh province and northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, there have been 170 and 18 cases respectively, including one death in each province.
Health experts said that lack of in-depth study on this subject was the main reason why dengue breaks out in Pakistan every year.
An official on condition of anonymity revealed that the government did not expect the disease would break out in 2011 and took no precautionary measures.
Muhammad Aslam Khan, a Pakistani adviser at the World Health Organisation (WHO), said: “These sprays cannot kill dengue. Officials will have to adopt the right method to deal with dengue, first identifying and then spraying the WHO recognized chemicals at the places where mosquitoes carrying dengue lay eggs.”