Dengue claims one more life in Rawalpindi

CDA carries out fumigation in various sectors

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD:

A dengue patient succumbed to the virus in the garrison city, as 67 additional people became infected with it on Sunday.

Forty-year-old Murtaza, a resident of the Hukumdad neighborhood, lost his life to the mosquito-borne disease at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH). The hospital sources said that the patient was brought to the hospital in a critical condition and he remained under treatment for 10 hours.

On Sunday, 30 patients were brought to the Holy Family Hospital (HFH), 22 to BBH, and 15 to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

Currently, 230 dengue patients are under treatment at all three of the allied hospitals in Rawalpindi, while a total of 1,149 citizens have been infected by the virus so far.

Streets fumigated

The Capital Development Authority’s (CDA), in collaboration with district health department, has completed anti-dengue fumigation in around 2,000 streets all over the federal capital.

Read 152 more contract dengue in capital

As many as 29 tyre shops, 17 workshops, 15 service stations and 5 junk yards were inspected, while 04 premises were sealed on violation of dengue control SOPs, said the authority’s spokesman. He added that strict monitoring and surveillance was being ensured in dengue-sensitive areas, like sector I-10 and Taramari. Spraying and fogging were also being carried out on a regular basis.

Around 368 teams, comprising of 541 personnel, were busy with fumigation and sampling. The spokesperson said that one FIR was lodged, while 6 people were arrested on account of violation of section 144. He added that because of strict monitoring and tangible mitigation efforts, a declining trend had been observed in the dengue positive cases within the federal capital.

The CDA chairman/Chief Commissioner Islamabad directed the concerned formations for early completion of fogging and spraying in all remaining areas of the city and to utilise all available resources.

NUMS and QMUL collaboration

The National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) is collaborating with Queen Mary University London (QMUL) to develop antibodies, termed as “monoclonal antibodies,” for dengue diagnostics and treatment which could lead to the eradication of dengue from Pakistan, said Dr Liaqat Ali of NUMS on Sunday.

“There is no vaccine or specific treatment available for dengue infection, there is a need for the development of novel antiviral drugs. I am working on the use of RNAi technology to inhibit dengue viral replication to provide a new therapeutic strategy to combat and treat severe dengue disease”, said Dr Liaqat.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2021.