Participants fear inaction could cause lot more havoc than this year’s outbreak. PHOTO: FILE
To tackle threats posed by dengue fever, the district government of Swat organised a one-day seminar on Wednesday in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Merlin, an international health charity.
Held at the Jirga Hall in Malakand Division commissioner’s office, the seminar was attended by division commissioners, deputy commissioners, district health officers, elected representatives along with health experts and officials from Merlin and WHO.
Malakand Division Commissioner Afsar Khan discussed the objectives of the seminar held to debate the lessons learnt and future plans on how to deal with dengue.
After an intense discussion the participants decided the best strategy would be to destroy dengue mosquito eggs from Malakand Division so they do not re-emerge next spring.
According to Swat Assistant Commissioner Farukh Ateeq, more than 70 people had died because of dengue in Malakand Division and around 9,000 had contracted the fever. He added a plan worth Rs35 million had been chalked out to eliminate the dengue mosquito – its eggs and larva will be destroyed, while anti-dengue spray will also be used across the division. Volunteers and doctors have been recruited to run the programme.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Mussarat Ahmed Zeb said the dengue epidemic should be tackled by a collective approach irrespective of party affiliations. “If this is not dealt with properly by next year, then people will be forced to migrate,” she said. “We will all work actively to remove it from our area.”
The seminar participants claimed if nothing was done to tackle dengue in the area then it could cause a lot more havoc than the outbreak which occurred this year.
Elected representatives promised they would pass a resolution regarding the dengue epidemic in the assembly and have funds approved for the eradication project.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 28th, 2013.
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