Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Khan said the last check by his min­istry re­vealed there were some 1,639 cas­es of peo­ple in­fect­ed with dengue fever through­out the coun­try. How­ev­er, he warned that the fig­ure has not yet tak­en in­to ac­count cas­es for Au­gust and, there­fore, the tal­ly could be much high­er. Asked if the coun­try was ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a dengue epi­dem­ic, Khan said: "Giv­en the fact that it is the rainy sea­son you could say so. Every­day peo­ple are test­ing pos­i­tive for dengue fever."

He said there must be a clear dis­tinc­tion be­tween dengue fever and the dengue he­m­or­rhag­ic fever.

"We have had one or two cas­es of the dengue he­m­or­rhag­ic fever which is the more dead­ly type," Khan added. He said in a sit­u­a­tion such as the Prime Min­is­ter's her platelets would be close­ly mon­i­tored en­sur­ing there is no drop in her blood count. "It's a very mild form of dengue that the Prime Min­is­ter has. She is rest­ing and do­ing her work at home," Khan added.

He said she al­so would be ex­pe­ri­enc­ing high fever, eye­ball and back pain, among oth­er symp­toms.

The min­is­ter again ap­pealed to the pub­lic to keep sur­round­ings clean and that stag­nant wa­ter be prop­er­ly man­aged.