ISLAMABAD: The number of Dengue patients across the country crossed 50,000 on Saturday as health officials struggled to handle with the deadly epidemic on a mass scale.

According to health department report, at least 250 people have already died of dengue in different parts of the country over the past few weeks. The twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are the worst-hit areas.

Health officials estimate that at least 25,000 people in the twin cities have tested positive for the dengue virus recently. In the two big hospitals of Islamabad alone, some 8,000 dengue cases have been identified.

Health departments has confirmed at least 35 deaths from the dengue virus in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. On Friday, another death was reported from the Morgah area of the Rawalpindi city.

Reports suggest that at least 750 dengue patients are currently undergoing treatment at different hospitals in the twin cities, where the health staff taking care of them numbers only 35.

At least 150 law enforcement officials have also fallen victim to the dengue virus. Authorities are not revealing the correct figures out of fear of a backlash by the general public.

Meanwhile, Thousands more people reportedly tested positive for dengue in Punjab.

The officials from the provincial health department of Punjab detailed that the tally mounts to 5650 for dengue patients this year including 140 new cases were reported in Rawalpindi, 24 in Lahore so far.

The health department had elaborated that the surveillance teams had checked more than 274,320 places in rural parts and overall 76,580 urban places to detect dengue larvae.

The teams had registered around 124 cases over finding the presence of dengue larvae besides arresting 37 people, the department had said.

As many as 167 fresh cases of dengue fever have been reported during the last 24 hours in Karachi. Last week, two people died of dengue in Karachi, taking the death toll of people dying from the deadly disease to 14 in the metropolis.

According to the Dengue Surveillance Cell the number of patients infected with dengue fever in Karachi has crossed 1500 this month.

In 10 days of this October 1517 people were infected with dengue virus, the cell said in its report.

Overall 4,563 people were infected with the dengue virus in current year in the metropolis.

According to the report, 16 patients of dengue fever died in Sindh, as the overall 4858 patients have been reported so far across the province this year.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the provincial government was taking preventive measures including separate wards in all government hospitals for dengue patients.