The district administration will start fumigating all union councils on Thursday (today), officials said.
Last year, between August and November, hospitals in Rawalpindi received more than 800 confirmed cases of dengue. Two patients died.
Authorities fear the outbreak this year could be more fatal, and are thus planning to raise awareness with the help of education and health departments through seminars, presentations and distribution of booklets with information on dengue and preventive methods against it.
In a meeting on Wednesday Punjab Local Government Additional Secretary Moazam Ali Janjua reviewed the measures taken by Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) against a possible dengue outbreak.
RDA Director General (retd) Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed said they were sending daily reports to Punjab government about the measures they had taken to plug leaks in water pipelines and drying up water pools in different areas of the city.
Armed with 15 trained staff members, 14 pumps and three spray machines, Ahmed said the RDA is “ready” to fumigate offices, parks, green areas and residential colonies.
In a separate presentation given to the doctors of Benazir Bhutto Hospital on Monday, senior medical practitioners said worldwide, 2,000 dengue patients died in 2011. Over 50 million were infected.
Therefore hospitals need to ensure “vigilant” supervision of dengue patients, said senior doctors.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ