Failing on the dengue front

300 cases of dengue have been reported in Punjab this year — and this is before the dengue season is fully developed


Editorial June 14, 2015
The majority of cases are from Lahore, which reports 149 and Rawalpindi with 39 — and the rest spread across the province. PHOTO: AFP

There are no mysteries about dengue fever. It is neither Ebola nor MERS. Its cause and remedies have been known for a century or more, as has the time of year when populations are most vulnerable to it. We thus view with considerable concern a report that 300 cases of dengue have been reported in Punjab this year — and this is before the dengue season is fully developed. During a similar period in 2013 and 2012, a mere two and four cases were reported respectively, and this newspaper lauded in these columns both the low incidence of the disease and the apparently successful attempts to restrict its spread.

It is as yet unclear why there is such a high incidence in 2015, but it is not as if the warning signs were absent. The whistle was blown by the Contech School of Public Health in Lahore that had warned the Punjab Health Department early this year that there was the potential for a massive outbreak — and so it has transpired. The majority of cases are from Lahore, which reports 149 and Rawalpindi with 39 — and the rest spread across the province. With the dengue season set to peak in August, there are predictions from reliable sources that the numbers could be as many as 300 times more than those already reported. Were this to be correct, and we hope it is not, then the health system would be completely overwhelmed. The reason for the outbreak is painfully obvious according to health professionals — a lack of follow-up on cases that have been reported coupled with an absence of case response. The response of the Punjab Health Secretary, Javaid Malik, is predictably ostrich-like. He refused to accept the numbers and assured that monitors and committees were in place along with Standard Operating Procedures to combat dengue. The truth about numbers probably lies somewhere in the middle ground, but either way dengue has arrived with a very unwelcome ‘bang’ in 2015.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th,  2015.

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