Dengue cases overwhelm Pindi hospitals

The Rawalpindi district has been left at the mercy of dengue mosquito breeding as the rising cases of dengue patients have raised a serious question mark on the expense of millions of rupees on the anti-dengue campaign.

The Rawalpindi's District Health Authority (DHA) seems unable to control dengue despite recruiting new sanitary patrol staff and spending millions of rupees. The Authority has already received Rs363.2 million for the anti-dengue campaign.

There are reports that in addition to the detection of dengue larvae by the field teams, undisclosed larvae in quantity of thousands are becoming adult mosquitoes and attacking people.

The DHA has a regular staff, including field and sanitary patrol workers, of 1,380 who are paid Rs55.2m in salaries. The Punjab government has earmarked Rs300m under a two-month salary for the recruitment of 1,500 daily wagers. A monthly budget of Rs8m has been earmarked for fogging, petrol and IRS spray.

The recruitment process of 500 more sanitary patrol workers on daily wages for two months has also started as the situation has become uncontrollable due to the increasing severity of dengue.

Despite all arrangements, the journey from dengue larva to dengue adult mosquito could not be stopped.

Cases spike

The number of dengue-positive patients has reached 3,461 in the district as of Sunday and public and private hospitals continue to welcome more and more patients on a daily basis. Up to 11 patients have lost their lives this year.