Dengue preparations: Teaching hospitals told to ensure NS-1 test is available

No immediate threat of dengue outbreak, advisory committee told.

LAHORE:

There is little threat of a dengue fever outbreak amidst the current high temperatures, but the mosquito population will start rising once monsoon season begins, the Dengue Technical Advisory Committee was told on Monday. The dengue mosquito breeds in clean pools of still water, which are plentiful in the rainy season.

Special Health Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar, who chaired the meeting, directed officials to make sure that there is no let-up in surveillance for mosquito-breeding sites and use of larvaecide to check the growth of the mosquito population. He said that high-dependency units, where dengue fever patients are treated, in government hospitals must be made operational and directed executive district officers (health) to check that they are.

He directed all teaching hospitals to make sure that they have the NS-1 test for the diagnosis of dengue fever. District headquarters hospitals should send blood samples for NS-1 testing to the nearest teaching hospital.

All government hospitals and EDOs must quickly report suspected, probable and confirmed dengue cases to the Health Department via software designed by the Punjab Information Technology Board. Confirmed cases should be reported after vetting by the professor in charge of the ward and the dengue focal person.

The committee decided that a public awareness campaign regarding preventive measures against dengue should be continued.

All government hospitals should celebrate a dengue cleanliness day each month where the premises are cleaned to make sure that there are no sites where mosquitoes can breed.

Health Director General Dr Tanvir Ahmad, Additional DG for Vector Born Diseases Dr Jaffar Ilyas, Services Institute of Medical Sciences Principal Prof Hamid Butt, Allama Iqbal Medical College Principal Prof Mehmood Shaukat, Chief Entomologist Dr Wasim Akram, Institute of Public Health Dean Prof Maaz Ahmad, Mayo Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Zahid Pervaiz, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital MS Dr Fazalur Rehman, Jinnah Hospital MS Dr Ijaz Ahmad Sheikh, Lahore General Hospital MS Dr Amjad Shahzad, Services Hospital MS Dr Rehana Malik and the Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib and Pakpattan EDOs (health) also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2013.