Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to hire entomologists to tackle dengue

Officials claim private labs are deliberately misidentifying dengue cases

PESHAWAR: With the number of dengue patients in the province rising steadily, the provincial chief executive on Thursday directed all relevant departments to play their role for controlling the spread of the dengue virus in the province. In this regard, he directed to immediately hire entomologists to exterminate the virus permanently.

This was stated by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan while chairing a special meeting on the control of dengue virus in Peshawar on Thursday.

During the meeting, the chief minister was told that no fatalities have been reported among dengue positive patients thus far while there has been a drastic decrease in infections when as compared to previous years.

Mahmood further directed to initiate stern action against all those who were found involved in spreading false propaganda regarding the disease.

The meeting was informed that NS-1 positive patients are falsely diagnosed with dengue fever by private laboratories, adding that they are responsible for creating panic amongst the masses for monetary gains.

Officials further disclosed that as many as 121,083 suspected dengue cases were reported in 2017, of which 24,938 were found to be positive with a total of 70 fatalities. This year, so far only 1,889 suspected cases of dengue have been reported of which 891 have been tested positive for dengue fever.

To curb dengue, the CM was told that as many as 19 line departments are working while special cells have also been set up in all government hospitals for diagnostics. A Dengue Action Plan has also been developed and shared with all the districts whereas doctors have also been trained in every district for dengue case management.

Similarly, the staff has been trained to conduct larval surveillance and fogging along with the procurement of chemicals for Larvicidal and Vector Control. Larvicides. For this purpose insecticides, bed nets, equipment and dengue RDTs have been supplied to all districts while dengue isolation wards have been established in all hospitals throughout the province. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2019.