October blues: District admin on its toes, as dengue threatens to resurface

Data being collected to identify critical areas for fumigation; Social Welfare Department complains of negligence.

RAWALPINDI:

The total number of dengue positive patients has reached 179 in the three allied hospitals of Rawalpindi and according to a few officials the worst is not over yet. The city administrations on Saturday exhorted that they would not relax their efforts to control the disease, which had resurfaced during October last year as well.

District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zaffar said, “It is not a panic situation but we cannot afford to sit idle.”

“We cannot afford to relax, dengue outbreak resurfaced in October last year as well, we have to be on our toes till the end of this month,” he added. Zaffar also acknowledged the efforts of entomologists, which he thought had helped in nipping the evil of dengue in its bud.

He said they had started collecting data of citizens of Rawalpindi who had contracted the virus and were admitted in Lahore. The information, Zaffar said, would help the city government in identifying critical areas for fumigation. The agriculture department’s reports have revealed that most of the larva and adult mosquitoes were found at the city bus stands.

According to the numbers obtained from Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and District Headquarter Hospital, the total number of dengue positive patients has reached 179, while that of suspected patients has gone up to 1,208.

About 103 patients have come from different areas of Rawal Town, 42 from the cantonment areas, 13 from Gujar Khan, 11 from Potohar Town, three from Kallar Syedan, two each from Kotli Sattian and Taxila, one from Kahuta and two others from outside the Rawalpindi district.

The officials of the hospitals said there were four dengue positive patients currently under treatment. The reports of Bazi Khan, a local of Pindi Gheb, who died at the age of 80 yesterday, have been sent to the National Institute Health for affirmation.

No fumigation for the Social Welfare Department

In a related development, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) Punjab Director General (DG) Aslam Malik was informed by sources that no fumigation was being carried out in institutes and organisations run by the department. He was informed about this “non-development” on Saturday, at a meeting for district coordination councils of Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jehlum at Anjuman Faizul Islam. The meeting was attended by district heads of the SWD, representatives of different NGOs and former DO Rawalpindi Aslam Mehta

District Officer SWD Rawalpindi Shafique Awan informed the participants two letters had been written to the public health department to carry out fumigation but no response had been recevied so far. SWD is currently running a Darul Falah (an institute that looks after mothers and their children), Darul Afiat (an old age home), Gehvara (for abandoned new borns) and an orphanage.

Dr Shahzad an official of District Public Health Department, when asked about this negligence replied that it was the duty of the Rawal Town administration to carry out the fumigation in the city areas as his department was conducting sprays in rural areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2011.