Dengue fever: Minister tells depts to remain on alert

People of Punjab need not worry, but situation in Sindh and KP a concern, says minister.

LAHORE:

All government departments in the Punjab should remain on alert and continue with efforts to contain the spread of dengue fever, Health Minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu said on Wednesday.

Presiding over a cabinet committee meeting to review the steps taken by various departments, Sindhu said the disease was under control in the Punjab, so people should not worry. “However, due to the increase in [infections] in Sindh province and Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, we should remain alert,” said Sindhu.

Two people were reported to have died of dengue fever in Swat on Wednesday, while there have also been fatalities in Sindh. Several dengue cases have been confirmed in the Punjab, but there have been no fatalities.



Briefing the committee, Health Secretary Hassan Iqbal said that 71 dengue cases have been reported in the Punjab so far. A total of 943 cases have been confirmed in Sindh, including 847 in Karachi, and 10 fatalities, he said. Some 1,056 cases have been confirmed in Swat district, with 240 patients currently under treatment in hospitals.

Iqbal said that the Health Department had offered assistance and cooperation to their counterparts in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A team of clinicians and entomologists from the Punjab visited Swat for a week and trained doctors and other medical staff in how to treat dengue patients.

On the chief minister’s instructions, the Health Department has donated two CBC machines to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for blood tests of dengue patients, as well as medicines and insecticide, the health secretary said. He said that he had personally contacted the Health Department in Sindh, but a proposed visit of Karachi by a medical team from the Punjab had been postponed. Keeping in view the spread of the disease in the two provinces, government departments and members of the general public in the Punjab needed to remain vigilant, he added.

MPA Khawaja Salman Rafique said that apart from public schools, officials should also focus on raising awareness about preventive measures against dengue at private schools.

The secretaries of the Cooperatives, Forest and Fisheries, Labour, Social Welfare, Local Government, Higher Education, Schools Education and Environment Protection Department, and officers from the Punjab Food Authority, the Lahore commissioner’s office, Punjab Information Technology Board and Special Branch briefed the meeting on their dengue surveillance and eradication activities.

They also gave briefings on their awareness-raising efforts, including seminars, walks and distribution of pamphlets. MPAs and medical experts also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.