Dengue Fever outbreak in Pakistan 2011

Already cursed by floods and suicide bombings, Pakistan now faces a new menace from an unprecedented outbreak of the deadly tropical disease dengue fever.

Earlier this disease was spread in Lahore and Karachi but now cases of Dengue fever are coming from all major cities and towns. The first case of this disease in Pakistan reported in year 1994 in Karachi. After that this disease spread slowly and in 2006 there were large number of patients affected with Dengue fever.

In 2006 World Health Organization for the first time recognized the disease in Pakistan and according to their official statistics more than 4800 persons were affected by disease and almost 50 died till 2006. First case of Dengue fever in Lahore was reported in 2007 and since then the cases and causalities are increasing with rapid pace.

It is tropical disease and the mosquito responsible for that disease can not fly long distance. Some years before when there was attack of Dengue Disease in USA they investigated the matter and found that the disease was caused by some recycled imported tyres hence it is evident that this disease was also came in Pakistan through that way and Karachi is the main Sea Port city and worst affected by this disease. All imported material is delivered from Karachi to the all parts of Pakistan and this way the disease is now reached in all corners of Pakistan.

The mosquito with Dengue virus is found in clean water such as in grounds or gardens and hence one cannot avoid it only by keeping neighbourhood clean. Now government is taking preventive measures by using chemical sprays against mosquitoes but more efforts are required to control this epidemic disease.

In less than a month, 126 people have died and more than 12,000 have been diagnosed with the virus, which has spread rapidly among both rich and poor in Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore.

Pakistan authorities have blamed the crisis on prolonged monsoon rains and unusually high seasonal temperatures.But furious locals say the outbreak is yet another example of government inefficiency, citing a failure to take preventive measures to kill off the mosquitos and lengthy power cuts.