Dengue fever: media urged to avoid panic creation

Advising the media to refrain from sensationalisation and panic creation about the dengue fever, top health experts here on Tuesday stressed the need for community involvement and integrated efforts to overcome this viral disease.
The health experts from all over the country had gathered here at "National Consensus Building Meeting on Dengue" to find out ways for controlling the disease and devise a comprehensive preventive mechanism for vector control.
Among others the meeting was attended by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission (PC) Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, Advisor to Health PC, Dr Talib Lashari, Representatives of World Health Organisation, Rana Kakar and Dr Qutab Kakar, Representative from Punjab, Dr Yaqoob, DG Health Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Shareef, Special Secretary Sindh, Dr Sikandar Qamar and representatives from Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides, representatives from all the hospitals of the federal capital, PIA, Police, Traffic Police, Capital Development Authority, universities, colleges and media were also present on the occasion. The meeting concluded with several recommendations suggesting for community involvement by sensitising masses to make them responsible regarding such social responsibilities.
The health experts suggested that mass awareness campaign should be launched by involving media, educational institutions and community leaders to control the causes of the disease instead of focusing on the later stage when it results in the ailment of people.
They also suggested that the utilisation of effective insecticides, at proper time with proper methods would, to a great extent help over come the disease. Besides, they stressed the need for effective case management and highlighted the importance of training programmes for medical staff to prepare them deal with the disease properly, besides disseminating guidelines to the general public.
The health experts suggested for launching a federal-provincial co-ordinated plan and suggested for forming a Contact Group to materialise these suggestions about the Dengue control. Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Planning Commission, Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq stressed the need for devising a comprehensive plan to launch co-ordinated efforts for controlling the outbreak of the disease.
Advisor Health Planning Commission, Talib Lashari said that the purpose of conducting the workshop was to share experience and come out with suggestions for the control of the disease in the country. In her detailed presentation, Rana Kakar deliberated upon the causes and prevention of the diseases. She stressed the need for community involvement in removing mosquito breeding sites besides using quality insecticides and effective strategy to eliminate mosquitoes in dengue outbreak areas.
She said that timely and appropriate hospital management was need of the hour to control the disease. Giving break up of the figures, she said that till September 2011, as many as 35 cases of Dengue virus were reported in Islamabad with one death. Similarly 3270 cases were reported from Punjab with six deaths, 195 from Sindh with one death, 25 cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhaw with one death and five cases from AJK. However, there was no case reported form the Balochistan.
In his comments, representative from the Punjab government, Dr Yaqoob said that his government was facing shortage of human resource and funds. However, he said despite all this the government has taken best possible measures to overcome the disease. DG Health Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Shareef stressed the need for developing a surveillance network and conducting operational research besides training the paramedical staff to overcome the menace.