Dengue threat draws lacklustre response

Highest weekly tally of cases recorded in a year

LAHORE:

The Punjab health authorities has yet to fumigate and regularly monitor all dengue hotspots in the big cities of the province despite an increase in the number of patients registered daily.

Dedicated dengue wards and high dependency units have also not been set up in the hospitals.

According to official record, at least 419 confirmed patients of dengue fever were brought to hospitals across the province during the past week.

Lahore accounted for about half of the 43 dengue cases confirmed in the province during the past 24 hours.

Health officials have warned that the dengue spread has reached an alarming level in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and some other districts.

On the other hand, both the caretaker health ministers of Punjab had claimed in a meeting a couple of days ago that the situation was under control.

The assertion came despite the increasing number of dengue patients under treatment in the hospitals.

The record tally of 419 dengue patients registered in the past week was the highest for the period during the ongoing year.

The highest figure for a day was 90, recorded on August 31, followed by 84 a day later.

However, situation during the previous week had been normal with an average of less than 30 patients registered across the province daily.

A senior health official told The Express Tribune that the number of patients had risen three-fold in one week. He said the provincial capital was in the grip of dengue but the health authorities were still claiming normality.

The official said the situation warranted an intervention from the higher authorities.

A meeting of the district health authorities’ chief executive officers (CEOs) should be convened at the provincial level to discuss a strategy to cope with dengue fever, he said, adding that the district and town administrations should be instructed to step up the preventive measures.

The official suggested that local emergency committees should be activated in all cites, the officers concerned should conduct field visits to oversee the ant-dengue measures and steps to spread awareness about prevention of the disease should be launched.

He lamented that the dengue prevention workers in Lahore and other districts were not identifying larva breeding sites. Even the tyre markers around the cities have not been forced to take anti-dengue measures to curb the risk to citizens from pooled water.

The official said the performance in this regard of senior officers of the health and district administration has so far been limited to holding meetings.

The number of fresh dengue fever patients confirmed in the past 24 hours in Lahore was 20, Rawalpindi 11 and Faisalabad three.

Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan confirmed that 1,458 patients suffering from dengue fever had been registered in the province during the ongoing year with no death caused by the disease reported.

The tally includes 562 cases record in Lahore, 271 in Rawalpindi, 166 in Multan, 112 in Faisalabad and 54 in Gujranwala.

At least 77 dengue patients are currently admitted to hospitals across Punjab for dengue treatment, including 31 in the provincial capital.

The provincial secretary said 2,678 beds had been allocated 36 district hospitals for the dengue patients.

He requested the people of the province to cooperate with the anti-dengue teams formed by the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2023.