Dengue in Peshawar claims teenager’s life, bringing death toll to six

PESHAWAR: A 16-year-old girl was the latest to fall prey to the deadly dengue virus in the city, bringing the death toll over the past week due to the virus at six.

According to the father, the teenager, a resident of the Tehkal area, was under treatment at the Khyber Teaching Hospital since three days. She was shifted to the ICU after her condition deteriorated today, but eventually succumbed to the disease.

The father said that the girl was diagnosed with dengue a week ago but the hospital sent her back home due to an excess of patients.

Thirteen more people have been diagnosed with the virus, bringing the tally to 1,547.

According to hospital administration, eight new dengue patients were admitted to Lady Reading Hospital while five were admitted to Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC).

Till Monday, over a 1,000 people had been diagnosed with dengue in Peshawar, which led Punjab Health Department to increase the number of health mobile units to three in order to fight the disease under its 'Karwan-e-Sehat' campaign.

The medical teams provided health aid to those affected in Tehkal and Safaid Dheri areas. Apart from Tehkal, cases have emerged from Faqirabad, Khyber Colony, Pishtakhara and surrounding areas of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital.

Provinces should not interfere in each others’ matters: CM KP

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervaiz Khattak has said that he is being updated about the dengue situation in the province on a daily basis and asked the authorities to create awareness about the virus.

He said that he is not aware about the medical teams sent from Punjab, adding that provinces should not interfere in each others’ matters. It took a lot of years to control the dengue epidemic in Punjab as well, Khattak added.

Khattak said that he refrained from making statements on the matter in the media to avoid creating panic.