Daily Times

The deadly dengue virus continues to spread despite a significant dip in the temperature level in the Rawalpindi, where more than 23 persons lost their lives due to dengue fever this year.

More than twenty cases have been reported in December in the city alone despite a significant drop in the temperature. The health experts believe that dengue fever might continue throughout the year in near future.

So far in this year, more than 50 thousand cases of the dengue have been reported in country where Sindh province is dangerously hit compared to other provinces, shows data.

Out of the total cases, 13,654 cases are reported from Sindh followed by the Federal Capital – Islamabad where more than 13,200 people have been affected by the viral infection.

There have been 10,000 dengue cases in Punjab, 7346 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and around 3217 cases from Baluchistan.

In Azad Kashmir, around 6 hundred dengue fever cases have been reported, says data.

This year, more than 65 mortalities are reported from across the country out of which 23 were from Rawalpindi.

Umar Ali – resident of Gulbahar Colony, Rawalpindi – is first cousin of two brothers Saad and Saud who lost their lives due to dengue fever this years, said, both brothers were diagnosed with dengue fever. Saad lost his life while shifting to hospital while Saud died on next day.

Both brothers had married on same day and both had a child. Saad left one-month-old son while Saud was father of two weeks old daughter, Umar recalled.

A senior officer at District Health Authority, wishing anonymity, informed that first time dengue outbreak was reported in 2011 in Lahore, where more than 25 thousand dengue cases and 259 mortalities was reported in one year. To enhance the capacity of doctor to handle the dengue patient, 110 doctors from five different districts of Punjab including Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Sheikhupura and Gujranwala were sent to Srilanka for the training. Next year, Rawalpindi was almost free from mosquito-borne tropical disease.

The only way to control the dengue is preventive measure and to control it before the larvae germinate, he suggested. All the preventive measures like fogging, surveillance and cleanness of graveyards and under construction buildings should be made till March and April but this time it was delayed, he maintained.

The officer revealed, the insecticide used in fogging and spray is imported from India and is delivered from Health Department Lahore to all the district, this time the import of the insecticide was also delayed and in some areas it was provided in June, which is also one of the major reason in the outbreak in Rawalpindi and Islamabad this year.

Up to 2.5 billion people globally live under the threat of dengue fever and its severe forms of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) or dengue shock syndrome (DSS). More than 75% of these people, or approximately 1.8 billion, live in the Asia-Pacific Region. As the disease spreads to new geographical areas, the frequency of the outbreaks is increasing along with a changing disease epidemiology. It is estimated that 50 million cases of dengue fever occur worldwide annually and half a million people suffering from DHF require hospitalization each year, a very large proportion of whom (approximately 90%) are children less than five years old, overall 2.5% mortalities were recorded. Dengue has been one of the major growing infectious diseases in Pakistan.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), there is no specific treatment for dengue infection, but early detection and access to proper medical care lowers mortality. In addition, dengue prevention and control depends on effective vector control measures.

Alamgir Durani – Former Chairman UC 77 – said, dozens of people lost their life in Airport Society, Gulbahar Colony, Dhok Munshi and other areas of the city due to the negligence of the health department and district administration. Lack of the resources including dengue spray machines, medicine and incompetence of the health department officials were the main reason behind the dengue epidemic this year, he added.

He revealed, the administration has issued a number of false death certified to dengue patient and mention the other type of fever i.e. typhoid, malaria and others to hide the exact number of dengue mortalities.

Dr. Shahbaz Ahmed – faculty member at Department of Entomology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IAGS) University of the Punjab – said that the lack of awareness, cooperation in government and society and meaningless school education system are the reasons for uncontrolled dengue breakthroughs in Pakistan. He also stressed on government and public responsibilities to adopt the Integrated Pest Management strategies for dengue mosquito control programs.

Rukhsana Bibi – a house wife – said, health department staff conduct door to door surveillance during the summer session and check each and every corner of the house claiming that water storage can cause dengue mosquito breathing, even than large number of cases are reported from their areas.

She said, citizen will keep their houses clean but how they can stop the mosquito coming from outside, or how can they protect themselves and their children’s when they are out of home.

She demands from the government to take serious measure before its outbreak.

Dengue fever cases have been reported mostly from underdeveloped areas of the city that includes Chaklala, Gangal, Dhama Syedan, Morgah, Adeyala, Kotha Kalan and others.

Sources said, The District Health Authority – Rawalpindi is having dedicated human resource of more than 1850 person including entomologists, deputy district health officers, survey teams and sanitary patrolling staff which is hired on to work on the anti-dengue measure throughout the year.

Dr Amir Sheikh, a health professional, says that several factors have aggravated the dengue situation this year in Rawalpindi. These include the weather, dense population and development projects.

“Green belts and graveyards of the twin cities are breeding places for the dengue mosquito. A dilapidated tomb can host billions of mosquitoes. Underground water tanks at under construction buildings are also providing breeding ground for mosquitoes,” he says.

Dr Amir says that 90,000 dengue cases were expected in Rawalpindi alone had the administration not taken the matter seriously.

“The efforts of the district administration, especially the Health Department, have helped,” he says.

Dr Azhar Mahmood – a health professional in a private hospital in Rawalpindi – said, dengue fever is not the problem of Pakistan only, it occurs in other countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Srilanka, India and others but these countries have facilities in their hospitals to handle the dengue fever patients, unfortunately in Pakistan, the hospitals get full within few days after dengue outbreak and after that situation get worse day by day.

He suggested that Government should build capacity of the doctors to handle the dengue effected patient and also should take measure to make sure the provision of facilities in Government hospitals.

Dr. Tahir Rizvi – District Health Officer Rawalpindi – while talking with Daily Times said, it is a natural process and dengue has to get epidemic after every four years. He said, in previous years from 2016 to 2018 dengue fever cases were reported in hundreds in Rawalpindi. This year more than 35 thousand cases were expected, the health department successfully control it upto 6500 cases. “Situation in other countries is more worst then us”, he maintained.

He said, health department Rawalpindi is having human resource of 1350 persons who have to cover more than 6 lac house, which is not possible so the department has requested the government for more manpower, while the Pumps, fogging machines, medicine and other equipment is provided by the Provincial Health Department, he added.

To a question regarding delay in the provision of the medicine to the District he said, using same medicine gets immune, only medicine used for fogging was delayed for few days only. He confirmed that the medicine is imported from India.