Daily Times

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique has said that political commitment at the highest level and full community participation are inevitable for effective control on dengue.

He said that in Punjab dengue was under control because of strong political will and enthusiastic community participation in anti-dengue activities.

He stated this while addressing a dengue awareness seminar organised by the Cooperative Department in collaboration with the PCSIR Housing Society in their community centre on Saturday. Punjab Cooperative Department Secretary Muhammad Shehryar Sultan, Cooperative Registrar Mirza Mehmoodul Hassan, Specialised Healthcare Department Consultant Dr Zahid Pervaiz, senior entomologist Dr Asif Mehmood, office-bearers of various cooperative housing societies and a large number of residents attended the seminar.

Speaking on the occasion, Salman Rafique said, “We did not forget the lesson learnt from dengue outbreak in 2011 in Punjab, and since then we are struggling and taking concrete steps for dengue control under the leadership of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The Punjab government has succeeded to overcome dengue issue with the cooperation of community.”

The health minister said that as compared to approximately 20,000 confirmed dengue patients in 2011, only 90 dengue cases had so far been reported during the current year (2017) in Punjab. He said that Sri Lankan experts provided guidance and imparted training to Pakistani experts in 2011 and subsequently the Punjab government evolved a robust system, due to which Sri Lankans today desired getting guidance from Pakistani experts.

He said that with the collaboration of the Punjab Information Technology Board, a modern IT system had been introduced through which the whole province had been geo-tagged and dengue situation of every district could be monitored while sitting in Lahore.

Cooperative Department Secretary Shehryar Sultan also addressed the seminar and said that his department was standing shoulder to shoulder with the chief minister and his team in the efforts to overcome dengue. He was of the view that dengue was a community problem and everyone had to play his/her pivotal role to get rid of this problem. He said that focal persons in all big cities had been appointed to coordinate in anti-dengue activities carried out by the cooperative housing societies.

Earlier, Dr Asif Mehmood and Dr Zahid Pervaiz informed the participants in detail about the symptoms of dengue and preventive measures. They advised that the community should keep their houses and surroundings neat and clean and water should not be stored in the open. Later, a dengue awareness walk was also held to highlight the importance of the issue.

Published in Daily Times, September 10^th 2017.