KARACHI: Around 45 more patients suspected of mosquito-disease Chikungunya have been admitted at Government Hospital Saudabad in Malir district of Karachi, ARY News reported on Friday.
The hospital staff have collected blood samples of the yet un-diagnosed patients and being sent to laboratories for confirmation of the infection.
National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad had confirmed presence of Chikungunya virus in Karachi on Thursday as three patients were diagnosed with the virus. NIH had initially taken samples of five patients out of which three were diagnosed with Chikungunya. A one-year-old boy, Umer, a nine-year-old Zohaib and 45-year-old Ikhlaque were confirmed as the first victims of the virus.
Director Health Services, Karachi, Dr Abdul Wahid Panhwar, confirmed that three patients were diagnosed with Chikungunya virus. He informed that the blood samples of five patients, including Muhammad Yasir, Umar, Ikhlaque, Muhammad Arsalan and Zohaib, had been sent to NIH Islamabad for Investigation where Umer, Zohaib and Ikhlaque, were tested positive. He informed that seven more patients were reported with Chikungunya like symptoms in Sindh Government Hospital, Saudabad.
According to health officials, about 3500 patients were affected by mysterious disease in Saudabad and adjoining areas in last few days. They informed that Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. It causes fever and severe joint pain. They said mosquito breeding sites are significant risk factor for Chikungunya.
Chikungunya is not a lethal disease and it is persisting in those countries where dengue is present because the carrier of both diseases is the same mosquito. The prevention and control of the disease is essential to save the people from the morbidity.
The Chikungunya virus pertains to the same family of viruses (these-called “arboviruses”) family, as dengue, but is known among the three for causing the least harm to health 4) Being transmitted by the same mosquito (Aedes Aegypti) as Dengue, the measures that are already in place for controlling dengue are identical to the ones that would be needed to control any surge of Chikungunya transmission.
