The dengue virus has raised severe worries across the country with several thousand affected, approximately 690 diagnosed with the virus in the past 24 hours. The mosquito- carried disease which may prove lethal if not identified and treated in time has spread rapidly throughout Pakistan and has resulted serious matter among the masses. So far, more than 16011 people across Pakistan have been identified with the hazardous mosquito-carried disease with the number going by the thousands with each passing day. Sindh has yet identified the virus in 2904 individuals, mostly from the urban population of Karachi. Balochistan has registered 2777 cases throughout the province. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has about 3412 people contaminated by the virus. Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital has reported about 3475 patients who have fallen sick to the virus. Places meant for dengue to breed and increased to be known and taken against, owners of the places to be penalized under the ‘dengue act’.
The government has acknowledged that laziness on its part has resulted dengue outbreak in the capital city of Islamabad this year. The government did not take prompt precautionary measures to stop dengue in the capital. The issue was raised by PTI legislators in view of the increasing number of dengue cases in Islamabad. When an MNA asked why fumigation was not carried out in April which is the season of larva development, NHS Parliamentary Secretary accepted that that spray was not done in April, which was the right time for fumigation. It was being assured to carry out timely fumigation from next year. This year about 10,000 cases of dengue fever have been reported across the country. The cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are badly hit. The parliamentary secretary told so far approximately 3,000 cases of dengue had been observed in Islamabad. An emergency centre had been established at the National institute of Health for dengue patients. Survey teams had been formed to fumigate various parts of the city and fumigation was presently underway in localities where dengue larvae had been found. There is the need for spreading consciousness about dengue among people. People should keep their homes and areas clean to obstruct dengue and other diseases. Various species of mosquitoes also cause malaria, chikungunya and zika virus, so preventive measures become very much necessary. The acceptance by the government of its failure to carry out fumigation in a prompt manner puts the bureaucracy in dark.
The total number of dengue patients in Punjab has reached 3,211 this year. The health department said every possible treatment facility is being provided to the dengue patients and the pace of operation to eradicate dengue larvae had also been heightened. Out of the total 3,211 dengue patients, 2,552 had been discharged from the government and private hospitals. Of the admitted patients, six were under treatment in the intensive care units of the hospitals owing to their crucial condition while others were state to be out of danger.
In the present year about 1,386 cases had been recorded against the people for showing carelessness regarding presence of dengue larva and its growth. Likewise the teams of health department also got arrested about 164 people and issued stern warning to 31,984 others for violating anti-dengue regulations. A large number of dengue patients at the BVH had contracted the virus in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi where they lived. The doctors stated that there was no lack of medicines for dengue treatment in the hospital and all patients had fully regained excluding three, who were under treatment in hospital. The provincial health department has briefed the Sindh chief minister that 1,239 dengue fever cases were reported all over Sindh during the last eight months and of them only six patients could not endure. From January 20 to August 20 approximately 1,239 cases of dengue fever were registered all over Sindh, of them six deaths were stated.
The report says that merely in August, 207 cases were reported. Out of 1,239 dengue fever cases, only six death in the city which include one in Malir, one in West, two in Korangi, one in South and one in East. Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed health department to launch consciousness drive through Dengue programme so that people could take preventive measures. Chief Minister ordered Local Government department to start fumigation all over province through local bodies.
Dengue haemorrhagic fever is expanding rapidly as about 1,200 cases have been reaffirmed during the previous 25 days from the rural areas in Peshawar district mainly due to absence of combined efforts by line departments to cleanliness, supply of water, electricity, fumigation and create public awareness relating precautionary measures. The health department issued an advisory in March this year seeking consciousness among the line departments but it went not heard and presently an outbreak of the disease is going on. More than 100 health facilities in the district have been receiving over 100 suspected patients daily with complaints of vomiting, fever and abdominal pain. About 50 of them are tested positive and about 4,000 have screened so far. City’s teaching hospitals have so far treated about 188 patients where 25 have been admitted in solitude wards. The impacted people aged from two to 65 years. The unplanned power outages forced people to store water and provide breeding spaces to larvae. They said that scheduled power loadshedding could help the people in getting water supply without any need of storage. The health workers are short of funds to buy fuel and hire additional staff for carrying out intra-residential spray, which is the main reason of rise in the infection. The situation is not satisfactory. The dengue season is going to be over in a few days. Enough resources are to be provided to tackle with the situation throughout the province. Inter-sectors cooperation was needed the most. Sanitation and hygiene habits of the society were going down rapidly. People should be encouraged to maintain cleanliness as health department could not remove dengue alone. The health professional related with the anti-dengue efforts claim that in spite of absence of resources, they have been campaigning to expand public awareness by giving health education in diseased areas.