Dengue fear — again

The 22 cases of dengue reported in Karachi in the last week is an indicator that the government needs to step up its dengue prevention projects and make sure that the problem is tackled well before it becomes an epidemic. The spate of cases that was reported in recent days has brought the total number of reported dengue cases since January to 204 in Karachi alone. The dengue prevention and control programme must keep in mind that these cases were reported ahead of the dengue season, which usually arrives around August. If a large number of cases are being reported earlier in the year, it shows that the problem at hand may be much larger than faced in previous years and immediate prevention mechanisms are needed to tackle the virus.

The good news is that the city administration has now started a fumigation drive in various areas. Hospitals have been instructed to maintain data on the number of patients coming in and share it with the centralised dengue prevention centre. While all these are necessary steps, there is also a need to address the issue on a larger scale. It is important to identify the areas where the dengue cases have been reported from and the fumigation drive must be intensified in these localities. The residents need to be advised on the prevention mechanisms they can adopt at the household level. The dengue prevention centre must also seek help from researchers to identify the source of larvae growth. Areas with huge piles of garbage or with bodies of water must be cleaned up to prevent dengue mosquitoes from breeding. In addition, citizens, at an individual level, must also ensure that they keep their neighbourhoods clean. What we often see is that at the civic level, the local administration is negligent in dealing with solid waste and in data collection on the incidence of dengue. There also seems to be a dearth of appropriately trained healthcare workers to control the spread of the disease. This needs to change before we have another public health emergency on our hands.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th,  2015.

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