Daily Times

The unavoidable has happened as a new wave of panic gripped Pakistan. Less than a month after Rawalpindi had issued a public health red alert in the wake of 60 dengue cases surfacing overnight, deadly mosquitos are busy making rounds in all corners of the country.

The genie has smashed the proverbial bottle with over 100 new cases rearing heads in Punjab alone. Anti-dengue squads have kickstarted their surveillance programs as the provincial health secretary appeals to the masses to adopt prevention measures. Fortunately for Punjab, there can be a silver lining to falling into the same pit year after year.

Being hit by major outbreaks in the past has equipped its administration with the necessary battlefield experience and the political will to jumpstart fumigation drives and awareness campaigns. It was for this reason only that alarm bells from the garrison city immediately resulted in surveillance by a specialised team from Lahore.

This knee-jerk response can, however, not discount the lax performance in the last monsoon season. The record-breaking calamities threatened to undo all the prior progress because Punjab was not interested in preparing for the outbreak.

Presently, the situation appears far more critical in the country’s south, which is in no shape to fight off another existential threat. Both Sindh and Balochistan have not even managed to raise, let alone keep, their heads above the water. Devastating floods ripping through the land are not showing any signs of slowing down even after impacting over 33 million Pakistanis.

The looming cloud could be seen from afar because the media did a fine job reminding the local administration of the critical need to dust off the cobwebs and unfurl the precautionary campaigns.

An “unprecedented” scale of the humanitarian crisis was similarly decried by both UN and WHO teams, which had noted how camps cramming with people and livestock together would provide an ideal ground zero for such outbreaks.

But to expect the provinces of juggling the arduous relief programmes with just as time and resource-consuming exercise of guarding the front door against yet another perilous monster is, for the lack of a better word, unfair. After all, Pakistan is struggling to free itself of the rope tied around its hands after it has been pushed in front of a moving train.

Disasters on the heels of debilitating disasters are ready to raze everything to bits and all anyone in power can do is issue a seemingly neverending series of advisories. It can only be hoped that Climate Minister Sherry Rehman’s emphatic announcement of a dengue emergency was the last of the horrors. Unfortunately, the stars do not wish to align in our favour anytime soon. *