Dengue epidemic

Dengue fever has assumed epidemic proportions in Punjab. A provincial health department official disclosed on Wednesday that 86 new patients had tested positive for the virus in Lahore and 12 in other districts, bringing the total number of reported dengue cases to 762. Notably, diagnosis of this killer disease requires certain laboratory tests.
It is, therefore, possible that the incidence of dengue fever is much higher in the rural areas and smaller cities where such facilities are unavailable and awareness about its symptoms very low. Many may have died without anyone knowing the cause.
It is pertinent to recall here that last year, 1,600 people contacted dengue virus in Punjab. The number of recorded cases in Sindh was 2,000 with an overwhelming majority of 1,800 cases in Karachi. The figure for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa until end of October was 400. These statistics should have kept provincial governments on the alert. They should have adopted necessary preventive measures. Unfortunately, however, planning for any eventuality is not a part of the culture in our government departments; things are done more in a reactive rather than a deliberative mode. Now that dengue is causing widespread suffering, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken a serious notice. Punjab Director General of Health announced a new anti-dengue strategy under which spray, fumigation and larvicide work is to be carried out in different parts of Lahore in a phased manner. Solid Waste Management Department staff would be removing heaps of garbage prior to sprays while Water and Sanitation Authority personnel are to mend all the leaking water pipes to significantly help reduce the number of mosquito breeding grounds. The DG of health department promised strict monitoring of the dengue eradication campaign to ensure the field staff does not shirk its duty.
Belated as it is, the campaign can still prevent a lot of harm provided it is done effectively. A press report, however, gives some cause of concern in this respect. It points out that during the August 24 meeting, presided by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, a senior health official had pointed out that the quality of the chemicals used in the anti-dengue campaign, especially in the smaller districts, may be substandard. And further that in order to rid the population of the dengue menace, round-the-year fumigation, indoors and outdoors, in urban as well as rural areas is required. Hopefully, this sound professional advice would be followed not only by the Punjab government, but also those of the other two dengue-affected provinces.