Dengue season: No confirmed cases yet, says EDO

LAHORE:

No dengue case has been confirmed in the city yet, but Health Department and district government teams have been activated to spray insecticide at mosquito breeding sites after the recent rise in temperatures, said Executive District Officer (Health) Dr Inamul Haq in a briefing at his office on Thursday.

He said that five dengue cases were suspected in the first week of March but laboratory tests showed they were not dengue. He said that a lot of people in Lahore were infected by dengue last year and their dengue virus test would come out positive for a long time. “That is why we do NS-1 tests of patients to confirm dengue, as per the guidelines of the dengue experts advisory group,” said Dr Haq. He said that dengue larvae had been detected in Lahore and teams were spraying insecticide at breeding sites at the union council level. He said all doctors had been alerted and the necessary equipment and dengue test kits provided to hospital labs. District Officer (Health) Dr Saeed Akhtar also attended the briefing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2012.