Advisor to Chief Minister on Health Khawaja Salman Rafiq has claimed that dengue is completely under control in Punjab and that the first phase of the dengue season is over while the next phase will start with monsoon rains for which concerned departments should remain alert. He stated this while chairing a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Dengue at the Civil Secretariat here on Wednesday.
Senior officers of all concerned departments, public health experts, clinicians, entomologists and epidemiologists, representatives of the Pakistan Railways, the Metrological Department, the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and cantonment also attended the meeting. The meeting talked about the dengue control and indoor and outdoor surveillance activities in Punjab. The concerned officers told the meeting about surveillance of graveyards, tyre shops, junkyards, water ponds and construction sites, adding that seminars are being organised by the Education and Co-operatives Departments.
The concerned departments talked about the action plan to observe the International Dengue Day on June 15. The advisor then took notice of reports of dengue larvae in different union councils in Rawalpindi and Taxila and told health executive district officers from Rawalpindi to conduct sweeping in the affected areas.
Health Secretary Jawad Rafiq Malik, Health Director General Dr Zahid Pervaiz, Chief Executive PIC Professor Bilal Zakariya Khan, Professor Zubair of Jinnah Hospital, Professor Sheharyar of Gulab Devi Hospital, Professor Saqib Shafi of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Associate Professor Dr Balqees of Mayo Hospital and Associate Professors of Multan Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology and Shaikh Zayed Hospital Lahore attended the meeting. It was decided that Professor Bilal Zakariya Khan, as focal person, would submit a consolidated report regarding the recommendations collected from different teaching hospitals about the requirements of doctors, medical equipment, infrastructure and expenditures. For this purpose, a meeting will be held on June 17 in which all heads of Cardiology departments would come up with the requirements of their respective hospitals.