Public health: Dengue prevention kits to be handed out from today

Critics say other districts discriminated against, only 500,000 families to benefit.

LAHORE:

Kits containing mosquito repellant and insecticides will be handed out to 0.5 million families in the city.

The Finance Department released Rs163 million and the Agriculture Department started buying items from pesticide manufacturers, an official said. He added that for this particular purchase, the chief minister has relaxed the procurement rules. The items are being purchased from three companies, he said.

As more people with dengue are being reported daily, the government was decided to distribute a kit which would contain a packet of incense coils, a chemical spray sachet, a repellant lotion, some printed material to raise awareness about the virus and twenty paracetamol tablets to be used in case of fever.

An official said, the authorities concerned had asked for Rs300 million for the purchase and distribution of the kits, however the Finance Department provided Rs163 million.

The Agriculture Department has purchased each kit for Rs265. All the kits are to be handed over to the city government for distribution.

The chief minister will launch the distribution campaign, distributing 200 kits among family heads in a ceremony on Sunday (today).

Shaukat Mehmood, a dengue patient in a public hospital, said the distribution of kits among 500,000 families out of 2.1 million families in the city would amount to discrimination.

The officials and office bearers of ruling parties would favour their relatives and cronies, he feared.

A Health Department official said dengue was reported in about eight districts of the province, the number of patients was currently rising in Fasialabad but distribution of such kits was not planned there.

Such discrimination was not only a violation of basic rights but a violation of the Constitution, he said. No supplementary funds had been released except for Lahore, he added.

He said the Lahore city government had already been provided with Rs250 million to control dengue. Even the Sri Lankan team that came to give advice on how to deal with the spread of the disease had not been asked to visit other districts where dengue cases had been reported, the official added. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2011.