KARACHI, Oct 16: The city government’s education department has asked the municipal services department to fumigate the city’s approximately 3,000 public sector schools in a bid to prevent the spread of dengue haemorrhagic fever among children, which has so far claimed eight lives and is spreading at an alarming pace.
According to official figures collected from various major hospitals of the city, around 900 people have been hospitalized for viral haemorrhagic fever, out of which over 400, including children, have tested positive for dengue.
“We wrote to the CDGK’s municipal services department to fumigate schools and various towns have started fumigating schools in their jurisdiction,” Fakhar Karim, the City Government’s EDO Education told Dawn.
Officials, however, said the drive was yet to be started in most of the schools, but all the towns have been asked to do it on an emergency basis as the deadly disease was spreading like an epidemic.
The authorities have targeted the public sector schools in their fumigation plan but the private schools, which are more in number and most of which are run in buildings and congested areas with damp environments, also pose a danger to tens of thousands of children.
An official in the provincial government’s directorate for private educational institutions said a request for fumigation in those schools had also been sent to the local authorities. Besides, the private schools had also been asked to fumigate their premises on their own to save the pupils from danger.
At the same time, an official of a private schools’ association said most of the private schools had already fumigated their premises but the danger could not be averted till the surroundings were also fumigated.
“Most of our member schools have been fumigated at least once before Eid. But it is not enough and the danger is as menacing as it was earlier,” Sharf-uz-Zaman, Senior Vice-Chairman of the Private Schools’ Management Association, told Dawn.
He said most of the thousands of private schools were operating out of residential buildings in small spaces where fumigation could not prove effective or lasting.
“We have done it (fumigation), but school buildings surrounded by other establishments and a damp environment are not safe. Our children could be saved if the government opts for a holistic approach and fumigates towns on a full scale,” said Mr Zaman.
He said the private schools’ association had informed the authorities of the situation and sought their help and expertise for effective fumigation.
According to him, over a million children were enrolled at both the private and public sector schools in Karachi.
