QUETTA: Health officials expressed alarm at the outbreak of dengue virus in southwestern Pakistan’s district Kech on Thursday, as official data showed the infection claimed two lives and infected over 2,000 people during the months of April and May.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that is transmitted from humans to mosquitoes. In its most lethal form, the disease is known to be fatal. Patients who are infected with dengue suffer severe flu-like symptoms, including high fever, severe headache, muscle and joint pain, nausea, and vomiting that can last for a week.

Data by the Provincial Malaria Program showed district Kech reported 2,131 dengue cases in April and May. Two patients also died from the virus while undergoing treatment in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi.

“Due to the weather changes, we have been witnessing a dengue outbreak in Kech district because every year after the mid of May, the temperature increases up to 37 degrees in which dengue mosquitoes can’t survive,” Dr. Meer Yousaf, head of the Provincial Malaria Program, told Arab News.

“But for this season, the temperature has not increased.”

Balochistan health officials say only three districts in the province, namely Kech, Gwadar, and Lasbela, were declared high-risk places for the virus. However, he said only district Kech has reported a gradual surge in positive cases over the last six years.

Yousaf said despite intense insecticide fogging, the virus cannot be stopped from spreading until the masses don’t cooperate with the government to take preventive measures within their homes.

 Dr. Khalid Baloch, the medical superintendent at District Headquarter Hospital Kech, said authorities are conducting daily tests of over 200 people in the district out of which 30 plus people are testing positive.

“We have established a ten-bed isolation ward in the hospital but due to the burgeoning number of patients, many are now admitted in general wards,” Baloch told Arab News.

He said that out of over 5,000 dengue tests conducted in May 2023, a total of 1,016 patients tested positive for the infection. “We are now treating critical patients inside the dengue ward but still many patients are moving to Karachi for dengue treatment,” he added.

Kech government officials say they have been conducting anti-dengue measures such as spraying insecticides to kill mosquitoes. However, local residents deny these claims.

“The health authorities’ claims of anti-dengue spray in Turbat city and other areas of the district are totally false because the hospital is filled with dengue patients,” Yasir Aslam Baloch, a local journalist, told Arab News.

Yousaf said health authorities were running awareness campaigns against the disease. However, he said people were not taking preventive measures.

“Due to the shortage of clean water, the majority of people place their uncovered water buckets in their courtyards which is an active source for dengue mosquito breeding,” he said, expressing the fear that the coming monsoon season would cause a further spike in dengue cases in the district.

KARACHI: Pakistani authorities released 200 Indian fishermen on Thursday, who expressed happiness at the thought of meeting their families again but were sad to leave behind fellow Indian prisoners who passed away in Malir prison. 

Indian and Pakistani fishermen are routinely detained by both maritime agencies on charges of illegally entering each other’s territorial waters. The nuclear-armed nations’ borders are not clearly defined in the Arabian Sea and many fishing boats lack the technology to steer clear of any intrusion.

Karachi’s Malir prison has been in the headlines since the past year after several detainees of Afghan and Indian origin passed away due to health complications. In May, two Indian fishermen Balo Jetha and Soma Deva passed away after their health deteriorated in prison. Jail authorities insist inmates are treated well and provided medical treatment whenever they fall ill. 

Parmar Sajjan, one of the Indian fishermen released on Thursday, expressed joy at being released but said he would miss his friend Deva, whose body is currently kept at a morgue in Karachi. 

“We used to live together [in jail], and if he were alive, he would have accompanied us [to India],” Sajjan told Arab News. “I am happy, and I believe he would have been happy too,” he added. Sajjan said his friend was provided health care in jail before he was taken to the hospital for treatment.

Sajjan thanked Pakistani authorities for releasing him, adding that he was “extremely happy” that he would finally get to meet his family. 

Another Indian fisherman, Hussain Rahim, wished India would reciprocate the move and release Pakistani fishermen who were languishing in Indian prisons. “I want to express that just as we fishermen are being released here, I hope that the Pakistani fishermen imprisoned in India will also be freed as soon as possible,” Rahim told Arab News.

When asked about the facilities being provided to Indian fishermen in Malir jail, Rahim said they were “treated like brothers” there. 

Fatima Majeed, a Pakistani fisherwomen and activist, said she could feel the pain of the Indian inmates as her father was also imprisoned in India in 1988. 

“I can feel their pain from very close because I have experienced this time too, I have also passed through it,” Majeed told Arab News. “It’s a very painful time.” She said when fishermen are arrested, the women in their families have to seek work in the informal sector to feed their families. 

Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, in response to a question during a weekly briefing, said by releasing Indian prisoners, Pakistan had demonstrated its “consistent policy of not politicizing humanitarian matters.” She hoped India should also release Pakistani fishermen who were imprisoned in Indian jails. 

When asked whether a judicial commission existed to ensure the swift release of fishermen, Baloch responded in the affirmative. 

“The commission surely exists and the two sides have remained in contact on the mechanics of such visits which we hope will facilitate the civilians and fishermen who are held in prisons in Pakistan and India,” she said.