Dengue outbreak sets off alarm in DI Khan

DI KHAN/PESHAWAR:

In a worrisome development, the dengue outbreak has been reported in tehsil Darazinda of Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) as on Saturday four new cases were reported from the area.

This has brought the total number of dengue cases to 27 in a short span of time. The outbreak has caused widespread panic in the locality as last year too dengue affected thousands of people in the district despite the tall claims of the provincial government.

An official told The Express Tribune that the first case was reported in Koi Bahara village of the tehsil around 12 days ago and since then the number of patients has increased to 27.

“After the report of the confirmed cases a team of the district health department on Saturday visited the village and distributed mosquito nets among the local residents,” he said, adding that fog sprays were also conducted and pamphlets were distributed among the locals too to create awareness among them.

When contacted Deputy Health Officer Darazanda, Omar Khitab said that the outbreak is highly worrisome and if it is not checked properly it could spread to other parts of the district within no time.

“Despite limited resources we are trying our level best to bring it under control and create awareness among the masses,” he said.

“Our teams are active in the district. We conducted fog sprays in more than 250 houses in the village on Saturday alone,” he said.

“Fog spray was conducted in the main bazaar and houses along with collecting blood samples from 25 suspected patients in which four turned out to be positive,” he said.

“We have distributed anti-mosquitos sprays and held awareness sessions with the locals to educate them about the precautionary measures,” he maintained.

In Peshawar a high level meeting was held on dengue which was chaired by Commissioner Peshawar Riaz Mehsud.

He ordered inclusion of local government representatives in the anti-dengue campaign to make it more effective.

“With the inclusion of LG representatives a successful awareness campaign among the masses is possible,” he said while addressing the meeting, adding that fog sprays will be conducted in the city in the localities identified by these representatives.

The meeting was attended by deputy commissioners of Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Mohmand and Khyber districts as well as Mayor Peshawar Haji Zubair Ali and all tehsil chairmen from Peshawar.

The meeting discussed the sudden increase in mercury level in the region as well as recent rains which could lead to the growth of mosquitoes.

It was decided that all the elected representatives would keep in touch with the general public in their respective areas to make the fight against dengue a success.

“The awareness campaign should be conducted in union council and neighbourhood councils and areas should be pointed out for aerial sprays,” he said.

The campaign will be directly monitored by commissioner himself and a daily situation report would be submitted to him.

It may be recalled that last year millions of people were affected by dengue including at least 10 officially confirmed deaths across the province. Every effort on the part of the government failed to bring the situation under control and dengue disappeared only in winters.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2022.