Dengue cases continue to rise in Pindi

31 more suspected dengue patients land in city hospitals

RAWALPINDI:

Dengue virus cases continue to rise in Rawalpindi with three major hospitals struggling to cope with the increasing number of patients.

Health authorities said that 31 more dengue patients have been admitted to the Benazir Bhutto General Hospital, the Holy Family Hospital and the District Headquarters Hospital, taking the total number of hospitalised patients to 89.

Sources also said that the three allied hospitals were also struggling to deal with the situation with a shortage of necessary medicine for dengue patients. Sources said that the highest number of 20 patients from Potohar Town urban were brought to the hospitals during the last 24 hours.

So far, 306 patients including suspected and probable patients have been brought to the hospital.

Separate dengue wards have been set up at the Benazir Bhutto General Hospital, the Holy Family Hospital and the District Headquarters Hospital as a large number of dengue patients were being brought to the hospitals.

Apart from setting up dengue wards in the three hospitals of the city, dengue test facilities have also been provided. This year so far, one person has died in Rawalpindi due to the dengue virus. T

he Punjab government has started monitoring the anti-dengue campaign on a video link after the situation began to aggravate. The health department has started spraying and fumigation to destroy the larvae in dengue-affected areas.

Dengue cases continue to increase gradually in Rawalpindi after the monsoon rains. According to the Met Office, 500 millilitres more rains have been recorded in Rawalpindi this year compared to previous years.

During the surveillance, dengue larvae have been destroyed from 22,240 outdoor and 2,590 indoor locations, health officials said.

Over 1,700 anti-dengue teams are checking different areas of the city on a war-footing basis daily to destroy the dengue larvae.

Health authorities said that it has been decided to recruit 1,000 more patrol officials to further improve the antidengue surveillance. A total of only 2,000 sanitary patrols on daily wages are at the disposal of the health authorities as compared to the requisite 6,000 workers required for the central pool.

Sources said that the number of dengue patients could increase to an alarming level if immediate steps were not taken to destroy the dengue larvae which have been detected in large quantities in urban and cantonment areas.

The health department has already warned of the risk of the spread of dengue cases across the district.

At the moment, the Chak Jalal Din Union Council of Potohar Town has become the epicentre of dengue larvae where 100 dengue cases have been reported recently.

Earlier, District Health Authority (DHA) Chief Executive Officer Dr Ansar Ishaq said that a “focused operation” has been launched in Chak Jalal Din with a spray and fumigation to destroy the larvae.

Dr Ishaq said that the anti-dengue campaign has been divided into two parts — raising public awareness and dengue surveillance.

He said that the district administration was requested to provide 6,000 sanitary patrols in order to expedite the anti-dengue campaign but only 2,000 sanitary patrols have been hired on daily wages.

According to the dengue control report, 94,590 hotspots of dengue larvae have been detected in the district so far but 5,468 hotspots could not be visited.

According to the spokesperson of the district administration, in August, 313 cases have been registered against 950 people for violating dengue SOPs. He said that 15 places have been sealed for repeated violations of notices.

He said that the district administration will arrange 1,400 beds in various hospitals keeping in view the rising number of dengue cases.

On the other hand, citizens have been asked to cooperate with the health teams and strictly follow the SOPs to avoid catching the dengue virus.