Dengue rampage continues in Pakistan with over 1,000 new cases reported

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan continues to face a growing momentum in the spread of dengue fever as death toll from the disease in the country's southern Sindh province in September has reached 30, the provincial health department reported Thursday evening.

A total of 402 new cases of dengue fever were detected in Sindh in the last 24 hours, the health department said. The worst-hit area was Karachi, the provincial capital, which reported 297 new cases.

The number of dengue infections in Sindh in September has risen to 4,319, bringing the local total to 6,888 this year.

Moreover, in the last 24 hours, 363 more people were diagnosed with the disease in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the provincial health department reported on Thursday night. The number of active cases in the province stands currently at 1,710 and the total number of patients this year has reached 5,869.

Additionally, the eastern Punjab province reported 196 new cases in the last 24 hours, the provincial health authorities said on Thursday. Punjab's Rawalpindi city reported 67 new cases, followed by its capital Lahore with 63 cases. The total number of cases in Punjab this year has gone up to 4,063.

The country's capital Islamabad reported 77 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the city's tally this year to 1,734, the health authorities said on Thursday night.

The Pakistani government has launched an anti-dengue campaign including raising public awareness in response to the alarmingly high level of cases and has taken special measures at the dengue hotspots in order to curb the spread of the disease.