They said, the citizens should adopt precautionary measures also at their homes especially after monsoon rains. A District Health Authority spokesman said, the district health authorities on the directives of the Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar were discharging their duties honestly but the citizens should also come forward and play a role to control dengue. They should realize their duties to save them and their families from the dengue fever, he added.
He said that with the recent monsoon rains in the city, the peak season of the virus had already begun and precautionary measures at this stage are a must.
He urged the people to properly cover themselves from their wrists to collars and their ankles from mosquitoes.
He advised the citizens to use mosquito repellents and anti-mosquito coils. He said, sprays at homes are also necessary to destroy the breeding points of mosquitoes and to stop further prevalence of this disease. He said, the department has been educating the citizens about precautionary measures in order to avoid dengue virus.
Prevention is better than cure, he said adding that fatal dengue virus could be controlled by following precautionary measures and conducting anti-dengue sprays. People should fully cover their bodies especially at dawn and dusk and do not let water accumulate anywhere so as larva could not breed around their houses, he advised.
The medical experts have advised the citizens to take special preventive measures to protect them from carrying dengue virus. According to them, citizens should use mosquitoes protective net and coil, properly dispose off the solid waste and stop water storage practices at their residence to prevent access to egg-laying female mosquitoes.
They said mosquitoes breed primarily in containers like earthenware jars, metal drums and concrete cisterns used for domestic water storage, as well as discarded plastic food containers, used automobile tyres and other items that collect rain water.
Talking to APP, Dr Sohail said that dengue is a mosquito-borne infection, which in recent years has become a major public health concern. He said dengue fever is a severe, flu-like illness that affects infants, young children and adults.
He added the spread of dengue is attributed to expanding geographic distribution of the four dengue viruses and of their mosquito vectors, the most important of which is the predominantly urban species aedes aegypti. He said dengue viruses are transmitted to humans through the bites of infective female aedes mosquitoes.
He added mosquitoes generally acquire the virus while feeding on the blood of an infected person. He said after virus incubation for eight to ten days, an infected mosquito is capable, during probing and blood feeding, of transmitting the virus to susceptible individuals for the rest of its life. He said the virus circulates in the blood of infected humans for two to seven days, at approximately the same time as they suffer from fever. He added the clinical features of dengue fever vary according to the age of the patient.
Dr Altaf from Benazir Bhutto Hospital said infants and young children may have a non-specific febrile illness with rash as older children and adults may have either a mild febrile syndrome or the classical incapacitating disease with abrupt onset and high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains and rash.