LAHORE: No death due to dengue occurred in the province of Punjab during the last 24 hours and the news aired by media is completely baseless that two patients died of dengue virus, health officials briefed the Chief Secretary during a meeting on Friday.
The meeting presided over by Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Akhtar Zaman reviewed the situation of dengue in the high-risk districts. He ordered the authorities to speed up the anti-dengue activities in Gujranwala and mobilize the field staff. He said that hospitals should have ample stock of medicines for dengue patients.
The officials of the health department in a briefing said that the anti-dengue activities were going on throughout the province. “So far this year, 7,147 confirmed cases of dengue and four deaths have been reported.”
They said that special attention was being paid to surveillance and monitoring in high-risk districts and according to the data, dengue cases were decreasing in Faisalabad and Multan. The divisional commissioners of Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala participated in the meeting through video link.
Moreover, the caretaker provincial Health Minister Prof. Dr Javed Akram participated as a special guest in the workshop on kidney transplant organized at Sheikh Zayed Hospital Lahore.
Dr Javed Akram said that innovation in the diagnosis of kidney disease should be adopted in Pakistan. The field of nephrology was very important in the medical field, he said, adding: “A dialysis department was established in Jinnah Hospital Lahore during my tenure. There is a dire need for innovative research in the field of nephrology. Pakistan is witnessing an alarming increase in the rate of kidney disease.”
He said the Punjab Health Care Commission had been asked to take indiscriminate action against them. Better treatment facilities were being provided to patients in Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023