Govt rejects emergence of new strain amid countrywide dengue outbreak

“No new form of dengue virus has emerged, it’s just a hoax,” says the NIH.
Leading infectious disease experts claim the existence of four serotypes of vector-borne disease.
Let’s say that the unprecedented rains and the resulting floods led to a 100% increase in dengue cases.

As dengue tightens its grip on Pakistan, the National Institute of Health, Islamabad (NIH) dismissed reports of the emergence of any new strain as a “hoax”.

However, leading infectious disease experts claim the presence of four serotypes of the vector-borne disease, saying that “a mixture of dengue serotypes can infect people in Pakistan.

In response to a question, an official of NIH Islamabad said that no new strain of dengue virus has emerged, it is just a hoax, the emergence of a new strain of dengue has revealed the cause of severe diseases affecting people. comes News Reported

Some experts as well as Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Reiman linked the recent dengue outbreak spread Climate change says the unprecedented rains and subsequent floods have led to a 100 percent increase in dengue cases, especially in Karachi And in other cities of Sindh where it rained continuously for two and a half months.

Another expert, Professor Dr Saeed Khan of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Karachi, said that there were only four serotypes of dengue virus last year.

“Actually, when a person is infected with one serotype, he develops antibodies to that specific type. But when the same person is infected with another serotype, he becomes seriously ill because the previous serotype Antibodies present in typhoid help the newly introduced virus to infect the person.

Prof. Dr. Iqbal Chaudhry from HEJ Research Institute, University of Karachi and Dr. Faisal Mehmood from Aga Khan University also denied reports of any new type of dengue virus. Dr. Faisal said that dengue cases in Karachi have been increasing continuously, adding that the peak of the dengue season is yet to come as historically the cases peak in the month of October.

Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed, another researcher associated with HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, said that viruses change over time and dengue is also a highly mutating virus, behind only HIV and influenza in the race. Is. “However, it is premature to conclude that a common mutation is causing severe infection,” he added.

Commenting on acute illness caused by Dengue Virus in Karachi and other parts of Sindh this year, he said:

“I think our relatively large population may have been infected with one serotype and now people who are infected with the other serotype are showing severe symptoms. With infection and re-infection rates increasing, we have severe dengue. We will see more cases and God forbid that there will be serious consequences.

On the other hand, hundreds of new dengue cases were reported from Sindh, Punjab, Islamabad as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, forcing authorities to take precautionary measures to control the spread of the vector-borne disease. As many as 388 new cases of dengue were reported in Sindh in the last 24 hours, including 324 cases from Karachi alone, where two people died due to complications from dengue fever, officials said, adding that they have identified the high dependency of Covid-19. The units have started to change. Dengue treatment centers in major hospitals.

Interestingly, only 188 cases of dengue were reported in Punjab in the last 24 hours, including 80 from Rawalpindi, 62 from Lahore and the rest from other cities, indicating that the surveillance system of the disease in the province is allegedly weak. was not functioning properly, where hundreds of people were getting affected by dengue every day. Access to health facilities for treatment of dengue fever.

I authorities Khyber Pakhtunkhwa He claimed that 307 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, including 153 from Peshawar and 73 after Mardan. have lost

Officials said that around 179 cases of dengue fever were reported from Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), while more than 150 cases of dengue fever were reported from different districts of Balochistan.