Public health: 24-year-old believed to have succumbed to dengue fever

Health Dept to ascertain cause of death through detailed investigation of the case

LAHORE:

Muhammad Awais, 24, a resident of Shalamar Town, who had tested positive for dengue fever last week, passed away at Services Hospital on Thursday.

The patient is said to be the first casualty of dengue fever this year in the Punjab, however, the Health Department is yet to confirm whether he had died of dengue fever or some other disease.

An official at the hospital told The Express Tribune Awais was brought to the hospital a week ago and had tested positive for dengue fever. He said they would conduct detailed examination and blood tests to ascertain the cause of his death.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif immediately took notice of the incident and asked Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique and the health secretary to submit a detailed report on it.

Sharif said there was nothing more precious than human life. Therefore relevant officials must make all out efforts to ensure the protection of citizens, he said.

The chief minister said no negligence or lack of discipline will be tolerated in this regard. He directed health officials to ensure that only the very best treatment was provided to the dengue fever patients admitted to hospitals. Sharif expressed grief over the death and offered his condolence to the bereaved family.



More than 32 new cases of dengue fever were reported in the Punjab on Wednesday-Thursday. The total number of dengue fever patients has reached 386.

A Health Department spokesman said it was still premature to declare dengue fever as the cause of Awais’s death. He said a Dengue Expert Advisory Group, headed by KEMU Vice Chancellor Faisal Masood, will determine the cause of his death after a detailed investigation of the case.

Effective surveillance

The city government’s anti-dengue drive is being conducted with the highest dedication and commitment in all nine towns, District Coordination Officer Captain (retd) Muhammad Usman said on Thursday.

He was presiding over a meeting at the DCO’s Camp Office to review preventative measures taken against a dengue fever outbreak in the city. The health EDO and all town administrators were present on the occasion.

Usman said standard operating procedures (SOPs) in regard to dengue prevention would be ensured at all cost. “Negligence will not be tolerated... especially in dengue surveillance for eradication of dengue larvae.”

The EDO and the dengue project incharge briefed the DCO on measures taken to control the epidemic. They said teams visited 55,030 houses on Thursday during the indoor dengue mosquito surveillance drive; and 17,136 places during surveillance of outdoor sites that could be possible breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes.

They said after the dengue control staff sprayed larvacide in an area, they took pictures of it with Android phones.  As many as 9,167 pictures of 174 such sites had been received so far, they said.

The district coordination officer was also informed that as many as 18 cases had been registered against owners of buildings where dengue mosquito larvae had been detected. One of them had been sent to prison for failing to adhere to the SOPs in this regard. They said teams visited as many as 115 graveyards, 363 junkyards and 400 tyre shops in the city on Thursday to inspect cleanliness arrangements as per the SOPs. They told the DCO 3,774 houses in various parts of the city had been sprayed with IRS larvaecide spray and fogging had been conducted in four sensitive union councils of Data Ganj Bakhsh Town.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2014.