Anti-Dengue Day: Lack of communication leads to confusion

City govt officials not told about postponement.

LAHORE: Many city government officials remained unaware well into Saturday night of the Punjab government’s decision to defer the observance of Anti Dengue Day on Sunday.

The government had said earlier that September 23 would be marked as Anti Dengue Day in order to raise awareness of preventive measures against the disease and to redouble efforts to eliminate breeding grounds for mosquito larvae. September 2 was also observed as Anti Dengue Day, while September 9 was declared Larvaecide Day.

After violent protests in Lahore on Friday, the government decided to postpone Anti Dengue Day activities. But late into Saturday night, many officials were still unaware of the postponement.

A city government official, speaking on Saturday night, said that he was trying to contact other officials to find out about the deferment.

A Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA) official said on Saturday night that he had not heard about any postponement. He complained that the Punjab government was pushing departments and agencies unrelated to public health to take on dengue-fighting responsibilities.

A city government official working in Town Hall said that they had a centralised system of disseminating information to government officials. He said that the cell had the numbers of all government officials. He said that no message was sent about the postponement of Anti Dengue Day.

Imran Maqbool, the public relations officer to the district coordination officer, said that senior officials had been informed and they had not passed the message on to their staff. He confirmed that no message had been sent from the Town Hall cell, but could not say why.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2012.