Dengue threat: ‘G-B ill-prepared to tackle dengue’

Health authorities insist chances of dengue outbreak minimal.

GILGIT:

The resource-starved Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government is ill-prepared to combat dengue, official sources said on Tuesday.

“The health department is short of resources and will be unable to cope if such a situation arises,” sources in Gilgit hospitals said. They said that dengue can spread in the region by patients who recently visited Lahore and may be carrying the virus, as more than 4,400 cases have been registered there.

“Hundreds of people travel between Gilgit and Lahore every day and the possibility of a dengue patient bringing the virus to G-B can not be ruled out,” said a senior doctor at the District Hospital Gilgit, while talking about the possibilities of dengue’s spread in the region.

“The hospitals are devoid of modern equipment for other major diseases, let alone dengue that hasn’t yet hit the region,” the doctor added.

Dr Latif, another senior doctor, said that the possibility of a dengue outbreak in Gilgit cannot be ruled out as even a single patient carrying the virus from Lahore can spread it. “But I hope the outbreak wont happen here as the mosquito season is going to end by the end of September,” he said.

G-B Health Services Director Ghulam Ali ruled out outbreak of the dengue, saying that the altitude of G-B is above 4,000 feet and
the environment isn’t viable for the dengue-carrying mosquito.

“However, we have taken some precautionary measures and have prepared a five-bed space, sprays and other medications to counter any emergency,” he said, adding that senior doctors have also been trained to deal with dengue.

G-B Health Minister Haji Gulbar stated on Tuesday that following a decrease in temperature, the chances of the disease’s spread in the region is very unlikely (less than two per cent, he said).

The minister also talked of measures to contain the disease beforehand, “We are thinking of spraying all vehicles that enter G-B from Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with anti-mosquito sprays.”

Ali said killing the mosquitoes was the best method of keeping the disease at bay, and a plan to control the mosquito population in G-B was under consideration, which, if approved, will be implemented strictly.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2011.