Dengue cases soar to record high in Pakistan
A record-breaking 44,000 people have been infected with mosquito-borne dengue in Pakistan this year, a senior health official said yesterday, as increased outbreaks linked to rising temperatures and erratic rainfall ravage other parts of Asia. Dr Rana Safdar, a senior official at the National Institute of Health (NIH), told AFP the figure is a huge leap from the previous record of 27,000 infections in 2011. Safdar said 66 people had been killed by the disease so far in 2019, compared to 370 in 2011. He blamed climate change for the surge, but would not elaborate. The government was “employing all available resources at its disposal to contain the problem”, he said.
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