Despite months of planning and countless meetings to discuss preventive measures by the provincial authorities, dengue has once against staged a comeback across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
Talking to The Express Tribune an official said that 45 cases have been reported from the province and DI Khan has emerged on top with 31 cases.
“Over seven cases have been reported from Peshawar, two from North Waziristan, two from Mardan, one from Chitral Lower, Manshera and Nowshera each,” he said, adding that DI Khan is the high risk district.
As per the standard operating procedures (SOPs) sprays should be conducted in monsoon season to effectively cope with mosquitos breeding but these SOPs are seldom followed.
Within DI Khan district the former Frontier Region Darazinda (FR Darazinda) which is now part of Dera after the merger is the worst hit.
In one village Bara Kohi 27 cases have been reported.
According to authorities there is no access to clean drinking water in the village and as a result locals are forced to use water from pools.
Teams of health department have already been sent to the area but their efforts were ineffective due to lack of resources.
The official said that under the Dengue Action Plan all districts have been directed to take action.
“In Peshawar, Nowshera and Manshera dengue larva has been found in water samples collected from different locations and district health officers (DHOs) have been directed to keep an effective surveillance,” he said, adding that around four million houses have been inspected across the province so far.
It may be recalled that last year millions of people were infected by dengue in K-P despite the fact that the government acknowledged only 10,000 cases in the province.
Dozens of people lost their lives too and it provided the quack and medical technicians who have clinics in the rural and even urban areas to make money with both hands. There were widespread rumors that drip is the only remedy for dengue. The public hospitals were unable to cope with the large number of patients.
Outbreak of acute diarrhoea
In parallel with dengue cases, around 18,301 cases of acute diarrhea have also been reported from across K-P in one week.
Swat district has been on top with 3,676 cases. Similarly from Peshawar 2,751 cases of blood dysentery have also been reported.
From Haripur 2,067 cases and from Malakand 1,983 cases have been reported.
A report by Integrated Diseases Surveillance Response System of K-P Health Department says that acute diarrhea cases have been reported from 12 districts of the province including Aabbotabad, Charsadda, Haripur, Khyber, Kohat, Lakki Marwat, Malakand, Manshera, Mardan, Swat, Swabi and Peshawar.
The health department has sent its teams to Malakand after the outbreak was reported.
“Four samples were collected from local community and houses and sent to Public Health Refence Lab, Islamabad in which three were found positive so formal response has been activated in the area,” said an official, adding that DHO Malakand has been put on alert in this regard.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2022.
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