Daily Times

The season of monsoon is not without the breakouts of dengue and malaria. In Karachi, 235 people, of them 200 are Chinese nationals, have reportedly tested positive for dengue fever. According to Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pachuhu, all the patients of dengue came from a locality near Hawke’s Bay. This is going to be a sigh of relief that Sindh government’s vigilance has restricted the virus to one area, and as soon as the locality was specified, the Anti-Dengue Cell sprayed the affected area with mosquito-killing pesticides. A massive effort is required to prevent the outbreak of dengue fever in Pakistan, which remained a major concern for the government 2007 onwards. The fever has largely been contained with a big dose of awareness and education among the public about the measures to cull the virus. The drive has been a big success by the joint efforts of health departments, mosquito control squads, schools and the general public to help spread the simple message – no stagnant water, no dengue.

A dengue virus carrier suffers great pain, severe illness and even death, if not treated in time. The virus stems from the bite of an infected female Aedes aegypti mosquito, which Pakistan has eliminated by targeting their breeding sites such as puddles and other places of standing water in and around homes and businesses. Dengue surveillance teams inspect every households to confirm there is no spot where standing water is found. The fact, however, is that these teams alone cannot eradicate dengue sites and the task requires the collective effort of the community.

The controllable mosquito keeps coming to strike the population again and again whenever room is provided to it. The main culprit giving a breathing space to the deadly virus is bad civic sense and bad sense of urbanisation. Unless these problems are solved, authorities will have to be vigilant. The best thing is killing mosquito larvae before they hatche into adults with spray.

The last month saw torrential rain across the country. Karachi made the headlines for the slow disposal of rainwater, which might have panicked the health authorities because of the increased prospects of mosquito breeding in the city. So far, 235 cases have been reported, which is far less than last year’s figure. According to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, Sindh recorded 2,000 dengue and 10,000 malaria cases last year. Cvic authorities need to launch extra campaigns to eradicate the breeding grounds for vector-borne and waterborne diseases. *