K-P health dept wants vector control budget released

Finance dept announces additional grants to tackle dengue outbreak

PESHAWAR: As the dengue situation becomes dire in the province with 69 fresh cases confirmed in Peshawar on Wednesday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) health department has urged the provincial government to release the remaining annual budget for the integrated vector control programme to effectively control the disease.

In this regards, the department on August 22 wrote a letter to the finance department.



The government had allocated Rs15 million for the programme for the fiscal year 2017-18. Of this, the government had so far released around Rs3.7 million.

“The finance department is requested to release Rs11.3 million as balance funds to cope with the emergency situation,” the health department wrote.

However, the finance department separately announced an additional grant worth Rs145 million to tackle the outbreak in the province. This includes Rs55 million for vector control interventions and Rs40 million for strengthening dengue surveillance.

Additional infections

Health authorities on Wednesday confirmed 69 fresh cases of dengue in the provincial capital.

According to the daily situation report issued by the district administration, there are as many as 292 people infected by dengue who are still admitted at different health facilities across the provincial capital.

So far, officials have confirmed that as many as seven people have died owing to the virus.

Awareness drive

As authorities struggle to contain the outbreak, officials on Wednesday further widen their activities by launching a door-to-door campaign to educate the general public about protective measures against the virus.

In this regards, 50 teams comprising four members each - including three female members - were dispatched early in the morning in town-III area of the provincial capital. The teams were dispatched after a detailed meeting with local government representatives and Peshawar’s Deputy Commissioner Saqib Raza Aslam.



Apart from going door-to-door, the teams will also fumigate the affected areas and mark houses along the same pattern followed by anti-polio campaigns.

Moreover, the district administration has so far arrested 79 people for violating Section 144 after tyres were recovered from the roofs of their shops.

Meanwhile, the district government has launched an awareness campaign in government, as well as private schools against the dengue virus.

Muqam alleges discrimination

Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) provincial president Amir Muqam has alleged that dengue patients which were referred by health units from Punjab have been refused admissions at the provincial health facilities.

Muqam told the media on Wednesday that the health units had screened 2,632 people for the dengue virus.

He further said that the K-P government was hiding data surrounding the total number of people who have died from dengue. In this regard, he claimed that government health facilities were refusing death certificates to families of people who had died of the virus.

However, he noted that the situation had finally caught the attention of the K-P chief minister who had visited the affected areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2017.