Top official among four die of dengue

LAHORE, Sept 12: Dengue continues to haunt citizens as on Monday it claimed the lives of four more people, including Punjab mines and minerals department secretary Attaullah Siddiqui, a UAE-returned Pakistani youth and a school teacher.

Mr Siddiqui was the first senior government officer to have fallen prey to the fatal virus which, according to official figures, took the lives of seven people over the past one month or so. But sources claimed that more than 15 people had lost their lives in Lahore alone during the period.

Mr Siddiqui, a resident of GOR-IV and a grade-19 official, was suspected of contracting dengue a week ago. Later clinical reports tested him positive for the virus with low counts which continued to decline till his death. He remained on ventilator for three days. His body was taken to Muzaffargarh.

Thirty-year-old Haji Shahzad had returned from the UAE 15 days ago to celebrate the birth of his son. Shahzad, a resident of Iqbal Road, was taken to a private hospital on Ferozepur Road. He was diagnosed with dengue and his platelet counts continued to decline. He was later shifted to Ittefaq Hospital with massive bleeding from mouth, ears and nose. He died late on Sunday night.

Samina, a 25-year-old school teacher and resident of Waris Road, and 12-year-old girl Farwa Naveed, resident of Chungi Amer Sidhu, died in hospitals.

Six more Chinese engineers tested positive for dengue on Monday. They were working on the project site of under-construction Information Technology Tower on Ferozepur Road. They were taken to the Jinnah Hospital, where their other colleagues were already under treatment for the virus.

Two of them were kept in the intensive care unit because of low platelet counts. Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Prof Dr Javed Arkam told Dawn that Mr Wong was immediately given two mega units of platelets and Mr Lee one mega unit.

Meanwhile, some 655 more people, including Abdul Latif (brother-in-law ofPML-N chief Nawaz Sharif), PML-N MPA Saiful Malook Khokhar, Housing Secretary Sohail Amir and three senior doctors, tested positive for dengue in Lahore, showing a visible surge in the number of patients suffering from the virus.

The number of dengue patients has shot up to 3,800 in Lahore and 4,000 in other parts of the province.