Incidence of dengue virus eruption in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Objective: To classify and confirm the identified dengue fever (DF) cases in Swat in order to provide epidemiological facts as fundamental for health care units to establish curative and preventive procedures for oncoming DF outbreaks. Methods: Blood samples were collected from non-registered and registered patients in Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital, Swat to test dengue virus via advance dengue NS1 Ag card assay. Then positive dengue patients’ blood was further analyzed through hematology analyzer (Mindray BC-3000 plus) machine. Results: The most affected area by dengue virus is Mingora in Swat District. The total number of patients examined were 5 592 including 3 822 (68.34%) males and 1 579 (31.65%) females. The male population was (68.34%) more than female (31.65%), although the infection rate was less in age group > 60 (2.02%) in both populations. The highest infection rate was found in 16–40 years of age (55.70%) with minimum death rate (0.78%). The characteristic signs were detected, which were high temperature with fever (100.00%), nausea (70.18%), belly pain (50.16%) and splenomegaly (34.16%). The majority of patients showed blood platelet counts between 7 000 and 100 000/cm2, and fever duration was 7–14 days. Conclusions: In this study, males were more affected than the females and high prevalence rate of DF was found in teenager.