Rain spell triggers dengue spike

LAHORE:

Rain in Punjab during the past three days has caused a spike in dengue cases, prompting health experts to warn the authorities and citizens of an increasing risk.

According to the official data, at least 115 new cases of dengue fever were confirmed in Lahore during the past 24 hours, while the figure for the province was 208.

Medical experts said the situation might aggravate to an alarming level in the coming month if efforts to drain rainwater from the high risk areas of dengue mosquito infestation in Lahore were not intensified.

The three days of rain in several districts of Punjab has marked the onset of the winter season but at the same time resulted in an increase in the number of dengue patients.

The provincial capital accounted for 115 of 208 dengue cases confirmed on Wednesday, according to the monitoring section of the primary and secondary healthcare department.

The daily tally of fresh dengue patients registered in the city had earlier dropped to 40, but 114 cases were registered on October 14 and 71 on October 16.

The number of cases confirmed across the province on Monday was 214.

A senior health official said drastically high numbers of patients had been conformed as suffering from dengue fever in Lahore on two days during the ongoing week but the figure of 115 recorded on Wednesday was the highest during the year.

He said the data indicated that the situation in Lahore could become dangerous if an extensive anti-dengue campaign would not be launched soon.

The official said the highest number of dengue cases had been reported from the eastern and northern parts of Lahore, including Wagah, Manawan, Darogha Wala, Shalamar, Mahmood Booti, Gujjarpura, Badami Bagh, Shadbagh and Kot Khawaja Saeed.

He said the reason for the high number of patients was that rainwater had pooled in several localities and the local administration had not taken adequate steps to drain it.

Most of the identified dengue larvae hotspots are also located in these areas.

The official said the coming month would be risky with respect to dengue as the changing season had not brought about any improvement.

Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan said 153 dengue patients were currently admitted to hospitals across the province, including 78 in Lahore.

"In all, 7,082 dengue fever patients have been confirmed in Punjab this year, including 2,834 in Lahore. After Lahore, the highest number of patients have been registered in the Rawalpindi district at 1,932, of whom 28 were registered during the past 24 hours,” he stated.

In addition, 755 patients have been registered this in Multan, 456 in Gujranwala and 312 in Faisalabad.

The provincial secretary appealed to the people of the province to help eradicate the disease.

Teams active in the field identified dengue larva at the 1,186 sites and carried out spray at 6,966 points in the city on Wednesday.

"Anti-dengue spray was carried out at 2,534 homes as the teams checked 50,307 indoor sites in Lahore, where 1,141 sites were identified as having the larva. During the outdoor dengue surveillance, 9,911 sites were checked and the larva found at 45 of them. We cannot get hundred per cent results without the cooperation of the public who should take care about cleanliness,” Divisional Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa stated.

Earlier, on October 13 a total of 77,000 Android phone users registered on a tracking system are monitoring and performing anti-dengue activities in Punjab. The participants of a meeting were informed that an average of 650,000 daily activities were recorded through the system.

The performance of the Smart Dengue Monitoring System introduced in 2012 to measure the efficacy of the surveillance activities was reviewed in the meeting chaired by Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Chairman Faisal Yousaf.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2023.