LAHORE:
Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafique said on Tuesday special staff would be hired for dengue surveillance activities and employees of other departments would not be involved in this regard.
The adviser told a cabinet committee meeting on dengue fever prevention that the staff would be recruited after the chief minister’s approval.
He ordered that dengue mosquito surveillance be continued during Eid holidays. “A large number of people visit graveyards on Eid… arrangements should be made to keep the graveyards clean.”
Rafiq said only seven dengue fever cases had been reported in the Punjab this season. He said focus should be on the elimination of breeding sites of dengue mosquito larvae before the start of rainy season.
Health Secretary Ijaz Munir told the meeting a vigorous awareness campaign would be launched in the media about dengue from July to November. He said arrangements were in place to treat dengue fever patients in hospitals.
He said currently there was no dengue fever patient under treatment at a hospital.
Earlier, officials from different departments briefed the meeting about measures taken to check the outbreak of dengue. The adviser said monitoring of the towns and union councils where dengue mosquito larvae had not been detected should continue. He said there should be special attention to Lahore and Rawalpindi districts for dengue surveillance.
Punjab Assembly members Pir Ashraf Rasool, Chaudhry Akram, Nawaz Chauhan and Majid Zahoor, the commissioner, the labour ssecretary, the environment secretary, the school education secretary and the higher education secretary attended the meeting.
Fire and safety
An inspection team from the Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) on Tuesday visited the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
The team visited the facilities to inspect the fire safety measures taken by the hospital authorities. The authorities informed the PHC team that contingency plans had been prepared in accordance with the minimum service delivery standards stipulated by the commission.
The authorities told the team that the hospital management had followed the PHC’s guidelines after fires broke out in the facilities. They said that by adhering to the guidelines, the management had controlled fires, minimised the damage and safely evacuated people at the hospitals. Senior administrators from both the facilities assured the team that reports looking into the recent fire incidents would be submitted to the commission soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2014.
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