Clerics urged to raise dengue awareness

RAWALPINDI:

Auqaf authorities in Rawalpindi have been urged to continuously sensitise the people about dengue SOPs through the Friday sermon.

Auqaf and Religious Affairs Secretary Tahir Raza Bukhari on Friday blamed the delayed reporting to hospitals as the core reason for dengue's fatal attacks.

He remarked this while chairing an anti-dengue meeting, which was held at the commissioner's office.

According to a statement, Secretary Tahir Raza Bukhari reviewed the dengue situation in Rawalpindi with corresponding anti-dengue efforts by the religious scholars and Ulemas.

During the meeting, a briefing on the latest dengue situation was given by the health department, in which it was informed that 108 confirmed patients have been reported in Rawalpindi district.

The number of confirmed patients so far this year has reached 3840.

It was apprised that 3482 patients have been discharged from the allied hospitals after successful treatment while 341 were under treatment in different hospitals.

The participants of the meeting were informed that the hospitals have a capacity of 600 beds for dengue patients which can be taken up to 1000 beds in the ramp-up plan.

According to the briefing, over 9.3 million houses have been checked, including the follow-up visits, since January 1 during indoor vector surveillance, while 2.58 million spots were checked in outdoor vector surveillance, out of which 9,452 houses and 12,660 outdoor spots tested positive.