Pakistani medical practitioners confirm reports of 'mysterious virus' in Karachi

A doctor checks on a patient suffering from dengue fever under a net as he is treated at a government hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, on October 10, 2019. (AFP/File)

• Hospitals in the country’s seaside metropolis have received patients with dengue symptoms who tested negative for the disease
• Dengue is a mosquito-borne illness that causes quick dropping of platelets along with high fever

KARACHI: Health facilities in Karachi in recent weeks have treated patients suffering from high fever who displayed dengue symptoms, said medical practitioners on Friday, though these individuals tested negative for the disease.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection that usually causes body aches and extreme weakness. According to a Sindh health department report, 4,535 patients have tested positive for dengue in the country’s southern province since January while 19 of them have died due to the disease.
Medical practitioners said they were trying to determine if the fever was caused by a new virus or an existing one which had mutated.
“We have observed a number of cases where patients displayed dengue symptoms but tested negative for the mosquito-borne disease,” said Dr. Ghulam Sarwar, a top official at the Saylani Blood Bank, while confirming reports that a “mysterious virus” was found by doctors and pathologists in Karachi.
Describing the symptoms, he said it caused a quick dropping of platelets along with high fever and the recovery process was slow among patients.
“Clinically, these look like dengue cases, though hematological findings suggest otherwise,” he said, adding that his organization was maintaining data of such cases.
“Like any new virus, we don’t have kits to detect this one as well,” he continued while hoping that testing equipment would soon be available in the market.
Dr. Sarwar maintained there was already a surge in dengue cases in Karachi along with other viral infections.
Dr. Zeeshan Hussain, a senior hematopathologist with a public sector civil hospital, confirmed the initial reports while talking to Arab News, saying he had seen a significant number of patients with dengue symptoms who were otherwise not suffering from the disease.
“The number of cases of mysterious virus is significant,” he said.
Dr. Naseem Salahuddin, head of the department of infectious diseases at Indus Hospital, said health authorities should pay attention to these cases and try to identify the virus at the earliest.
“There are three possibilities,” she said. “This can be Zika virus which was found in people arriving from India who had similar symptoms. Zika virus can be dangerous for women since it causes abnormalities in newborns. It can also be Chikungunya virus which was witnessed in the past. The last possibility is these are dengue cases that have falsely tested negative.”
Hussain maintained, however, there were hardly any chances of false negatives when the number of such cases was so large.
“Although we don’t have the exact figures, but the number of patients suffering from this illness remained high in the last couple of weeks,” he added. “You cannot have so many false negative tests when the population of such patients is so significant.”