Dengue fever to go online this week

Punjab govt to launch website, six more die as toll crosses 50.

LAHORE:

The Punjab government is gearing up to introduce an online network to register all dengue patients in the province and report deaths caused by the rapidly spreading virus.

A high-level meeting, chaired by Secretary Health Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan, decided that the website would be launched within a few days to maintain accurate data and records of dengue patients in the province. Medical superintendents of all District Headquarter Hospitals (DHQs) and other hospitals in Lahore will be allotted a login and password to register the cases on the website. “Deaths due to dengue will be immediately registered by hospital administrators and a complete track record of all dengue patients will be maintained,” a participant of the meeting told The Express Tribune.

Furthermore, patients will be registered according to their districts, since patients who were being brought to hospitals in Lahore were considered ‘local’ even if they were from a different city in Punjab. The website will help providing an accurate picture of the different locations the dengue patients were coming from, he added.

Punjab Health Director General Dr Muhammad Aslam Chaudhry, while speaking about the new system, said the Punjab Information Technology Board had developed software for collecting accurate data for dengue virus patients, adding that the new system would help address complaints regarding data of dengue patients in Punjab.

Meanwhile, the death toll of dengue continued to rise and six more people, including a serving member of Punjab Public Service Commission died due to the virus in Lahore on Wednesday. It was reported that Ghayasuddin died at Sheikh Zaid Hospital after being tested positive for dengue. Danyal, 19, Fatima, 60, Rukhsana, 35, and Samina Bibi, 40 and Sumbul Haroon, 19, also died of the fever in Lahore.

The death toll in Punjab has now crossed 50.

Chaudhry said that 441 confirmed cases of dengue have been reported from the province during the last 24 hours, out of which 393 belong to Lahore. He said that the number of confirmed patients of dengue virus have reached 8,117 in Punjab with 7,493 in Lahore, adding that 7,844 of the patients had recovered, while 349 were still under treatment.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said that the City District Government Lahore had activated 19 dispensaries while the labour department would provide staff and modern machinery to 25 dispensaries.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd,  2011.