KARACHI, Pakistan, Oct. 14 (Reuters) — Dengue fever has killed at least 17 people in Pakistan’s biggest city, Karachi, in the past four months, five of them since the beginning of October, health officials said Saturday.
A high alert has been declared in the city’s hospitals after about 250 people tested positive for the disease, they said.
“We have had 17 reported deaths from the virus in various hospitals,” said Abdul Majid, a health official in the southern province of Sindh, which includes Karachi.
“It is not a panic-like situation, but yes, in the last few weeks cases have been increasing on a daily basis,” he said.
Indian health authorities have been battling dengue too, reporting nearly 4,900 cases, including 94 deaths, in recent weeks.
But Saturday’s announcement in Pakistan was the first that dengue was raging there as well. Opposition politicians, some aid workers and the news media have criticized the city government for not anticipating the disease after the rainy season and for not carrying out proper fumigation drives.
Dengue is a disease of the tropics and is carried by the Aedes mosquito, which bites during the day. The mosquitoes usually breed in trapped rainwater.
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