KARACHI: Dengue sends 14 more to hospitals: Schoolchildren vulnerable
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Oct 12: There has emerged concern among parents of schoolchildren about the poor state of hygiene and cleanliness at government and private schools in the city, as the number of in-house patients suspected of having viral hemorrhagic fever in six city hospitals registered a constant rise, touching the mark of 124 on Thursday.
In all, 14 new patients suspected VHF cases were admitted to four government and private hospitals on Thursday, Capt Dr Abdul Majid, the Additional Secretary Health and focal person for the dengue fever in Sindh, said, adding that the AKU had resumed providing data to the health department.
The number of in-house patients at different hospitals on Thursday was as follows: The Aga Khan University Hospital = 33, Liaquat National Hospital = 35, Civil Hospital Karachi = 09, Dr Ziauddin Hospital = 25, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre = 19 and Bismillah Taqi Hospital = 03.
Parents are of the view that schools do not bother for any fumigation or fogging of drugs for killing of mosquitoes within their premises, including classrooms, and this leaves students prone to the threats of such viruses.
Parents of a student of a private school in Federal B Area said that since there was no way to tell if a mosquito was carrying the dengue virus or not, schools must take appropriate measures to protect its students from mosquitoes. A mother from North Nazimabad said that her daughter, studying in kindergarten class at a private school, would return home with marks of mosquito bites more than often these days, particularly on Mondays, when classes resumed after weekend holidays. She said that school administration should ensure fumigation of spray in classrooms and corridors to eliminate mosquitoes.
Very recent Interviews of government officials and surveys of some schools give to understand that government schools are not in a position to undertake any fumigation activity on a regular or casual basis whereas in the case of private schools, the situation was not very much different, with some exceptions.
According to experts in disease, dengue spreads through the bite of an infected Aedes Aegypti mosquito and the first symptoms of the disease occur about 5-7 days after the bite.
The mosquito rests in closets and other dark places indoors and in cool and shaded sites outdoors. The female mosquito lays her eggs in water containers, ponds etc in and around homes, schools, hospitals and other areas. The eggs turn mature in 10 days.
Dengue mosquitoes breed in stored and exposed water collection systems. The favourable breeding grounds are barrels, drums, jars, pots, buckets, flower vases, plant saucers, tanks, discarded bottles and tires, water coolers and a lot more places where rainwater collects or is stored.
It is learnt that schools in general do not have any perfect system of cleanliness while many of the places favourable for mosquitoes to breed and rest are overlooked by heads, as well as the administration, of the schools, mainly because it requires extra funds and efforts.
In a situation where about 30-40 per cent of the posts of sweepers are lying vacant, what one can expect from them about other aspects of hygiene, environment and viral diseases.
DO of the Secondary and Higher Secondary School Education Fakhar Karim and DDO (Male) Nazimuddin Siddiqui, said that schools were not provided with any separate fund for fumigation, but they could seek support in this regard from the city government or town health officers from time to time.
In reply to a question, the officers said that fumigation or spray activities were very rare in the case of government schools, which could be attributed to school-heads and education supervisors who lacked the initiatives for the purpose.
A town municipal officer confirmed that schools were not included in the ongoing fumigation campaign conducted under the arrangements of the city government. He said that two or three machines for fumigation are provided to towns after some intervals under a schedule, which did not help get rid of mosquitoes and flies at all.
He said that sprayer-mounted vehicles could be used only where the vehicle could move easily, like roads, streets, parks, playgrounds and big hospitals with wide entry/exit points etc while the narrow streets and the buildings with narrow entrance would left out. As such, any up to the mark success in anti-mosquitoes campaign could not be claimed, he added.
However, a medical practitioner said that students should protect themselves from dengue-virus carrier mosquitoes during daytime by wearing clothes that covered most parts of the body and by using mosquito repellents.
Dr Nasim Salahuddin of the Liaquat National Hospital said that schools failing to carry out fumigation or fogging could at least have ensured that the water containers on their premises were kept covered all time, while stagnant water anywhere around did not become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
