PC-WHO session recommends setting up of 'Contact Group on Dengue Control'

A joint consensus building session of the Planning Commission of Pakistan and World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended the involvement of community, media and educational institutions in creating awareness among the people to control Dengue outbreak in the country. The session, held here on Tuesday, was chaired by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Nadeem ul Haq.
The session recommended establishing a 'Contact Group on Dengue Control' with an active involvement of provincial representatives. The Contact Group would be chaired by respective provincial representatives with the co-ordination and facilitation of the Planning Commission. The 'Guidelines for Clinical Case Management of Dengue Fever/Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever/Dengue Shock Syndrome, 2011', prepared by WHO and shared with provinces, were also approved by the provincial representatives for implementation in the local context.
The WHO would provide technical support to control Dengue Fever across the country especially in Punjab. The session resolved that community involvement would be ensured in shortest possible time. In this regard an active support from media and educational institutions would be sought. A workshop for media persons would organised soon at federal level while the provinces would arrange such workshops separately.
It was recommended that case management of Dengue patients should be improved. In this regard a crash programme for orientation of medical staff in Islamabad and in provinces would be organised under WHO Guidelines for Clinical Case Management. The Guidelines would also be disseminated in summarised version for general public. It was also recommended that the provinces should prepare a comprehensive ventral borne disease programmes so that such outbreaks are prevented in future successfully. It was resolved that a co-ordinated plan would be prepared so that provinces share best practices with each other and handle the outbreak in an effective manner. While addressing the participants, Dr Nadeem ul Haq said that Dengue outbreak was a big challenge as according to him several "unqualified actors" were engaged in exploiting the situation by promoting their own products. He said it was need of the hour that community awareness was created and proper case management was ensured.
Dr Rana Kakar, National Surveillance Team Leader for WHO gave a detailed presentation based on international and regional experiences. She emphasised the need of strengthening surveillance, data collection for timely decision making.
She said that monitoring of hematocrit was of utmost importance and platelets be administered every six hours during critical phase of the disease. Dr Talib Lashari, Advisor Health, Planning Commission suggested that there was a need to review current interventions at provincial level. He said a concentrated campaign in Islamabad capital territory would be required to present it as a model for provinces. He informed the session that in the current PSDP 2011-12 an amount of Rs 123.466 million had been allocated for Roll Back Malaria Control Programme. However, there was a need to arrange funds for Dengue through other resources, he said.
Professor Dr Yaqoob Kazi, Dean Institute of Public Health, Lahore provided updates on campaign in Punjab. He said that Lahore had become a major victim of dengue fever. "Not just the government hospitals but also the private hospitals have been taken on board where 3,000-5,000 patients suffering from dengue are being examined daily." Dr Yaqoob said.
Additional Secretary Health Sindh, Dr Salman Gondal said that in Sindh 195 cases of dengue had been identified so far and out of these, 169 were from Karachi where Korangi was the most affected area. Brigadier Kamaluddin Soomro, Secretary Health, AJK, Dr Sharif Ahmed Khan, Director General Health, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Sikandar Ali Panhwar, Special Secretary Health, Sindh, Shah Irfan, Additional Secretary Health, Balochistan and others also presented proposals in session about Dengue Fever. Besides, representatives of all provinces, Quaid-e-Azam University, PIMS, Poly Clinic, Al-Shifa Hospital, Islamabad Traffic police and others participated in the Session.