Alarm raised with over 16,000 malaria cases reported this year

Official says distributed mosquito nets in worst-hit areas

PESHAWAR: As monsoon rains start to lash parts of the province with some flash floods, the malaria control programme in the province has raised an alarm over the spread of the disease with over 16,000 cases reported so far this year in the province.

Malaria Control Programme Director Dr Rehman Afridi told The Express Tribune that the programme is working in 14 districts under a global fund with assistance from the Indus Hospital and the Association of Community Development. The entire programme, he said, is being run under the government’s supervision in 11 other districts.

Dr Afridi said that as many as 58,000 and 67,000 cases of malaria had been reported in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

So far this year, he said that some 16,290 cases have been reported. Of these 2,584 cases have been reported in Dera Ismail Khan, 1,897 in Mardan, 1,756 cases in Lower Dir, 1,546 in Laki Marwat, 1,431 in Buner, 1,221 in Shangla, 1,063 in Charsadda, and 934 in Nowshera.

To control its spread, Dr Afridi said that just last month they distributed some 1.2 million mosquito nets, particularly in the worst affected areas of Tank and DI Khan.

Capital’s hospitals told to devise dengue management plans

He added that all district commissioners and district health officers have been tasked with supervising arrangements against the spread of malaria.

Furthermore, he confirmed that some 17 cases of dengue have been reported in the province thus far, of which 11 have been reported from the Sarband area of Peshawar alone.

Asked about the rapid increase in the number of Leishmania cases, he said that some 10,068 cases of the skin disease have been reported so far in 2019.

Dr Afridi conceded that there was still a problem in procuring medicines for the disease even though the World Health Organisation (WHO) had supplied injections and they had distributed 50,000 injections so far.

A further 30,000 injections are expected to be distributed soon.

Moreover, he said that a Leishmania centre is expected to soon start working in Timmergarah and Bannu with co-operation from international non-governmental health organisation Medicine Sans Frontiers.

PDA concerned over cadre change

Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) on Monday expressed concerns over a change in their cadre by the Khyber Teaching Hospital’s (KTH) board of governors (BOD).

In a letter to the chairperson of the Senate Standing Committee on Health, PDA President Dr Amir Taj wrote that the KTH’s board had effectively converted posts of civil servants in general cadre, which were already approved in the budget, to ex-cadre (fixed salaries).

Through the move, Dr Taj contended that all those medical, senior medical and principal medical officers who were seeking promotions for the past 20 years will be deprived of their due upgrades.

He demanded that the committee chairman direct to reverse the decision.

Inquiry over bad surgery

The health department has formed a committee to probe allegations of conducting incorrect surgery and negligence while treating a patient at a type-C hospital in Karak.

Earlier this year, District Surgeon Dr Aijaz Ahmed had performed surgery on patient Yousuf Jameel. The patient was later shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) in Peshawar where he died on April 13. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2019.