Raising concerns: Rawalpindi hospitals still receiving dengue patients

District officer health says anti-dengue drive was completed in November

RAWALPINDI: With winter setting in, hospitals in Rawalpindi continue to receive dengue patients casting doubts on the efforts made by the Punjab government and the district health to curb the spread of the virus.

Information gathered from the district health department reveals that three major hospitals in Rawalpindi received a total of 3,900 dengue cases since January 1, 2015. The Holy Family Hospital (HFH) confirmed 1,606 cases of dengue till December 30 while Benazir Bhutto Hospital received 1,800 cases and the District Headquarters Hospital received 500 cases.

Abul Waheed, 25, a resident of Mohalla Farooqabad, Dhoke Mustaqeem, was brought to HFH two days ago with dengue.

When contacted, executive district officer health Dr Arshad Ali Sabir said that he was not sure about the causes that led to Abdul Waheed contracting dengue. He said that the anti-dengue campaign of the government ended in mid of November after the start of winter. He said that adult dengue mosquito could not survive in winter.

Regarding anti-dengue efforts of the district health department, Dr Sabir said that his department had started a door-to-door surveillance to locate eggs of dengue. He said that breeding of the dengue mosquito would start in March or April and the health department wanted to destroy the eggs before March 2016.

The health official further said that his department had carried out the IRS, cold fogging, and thermal fogging to control destroy the breeding ground of mosquitoes.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2015.