KARACHI: While little efforts have been made in the ongoing monsoon season by health authorities to tackle the threat of mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue fever, officials concerned are worried that the areas hit by dengue in the past may see another outbreak, it emerged on Monday.

The officials identified North Nazimabad, SITE area, Clifton Cantonment Board, Saddar, F.B. Area, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Jamshed Road, Liaquatabad, Malir, Landhi and Korangi as the areas where more than 80 per cent cases of dengue had been reported in the past, particularly last year, which recorded the highest confirmed cases of dengue since it emerged in the city in 2005.

They said although the city had received fewer showers this season as yet, the poor solid waste management and vector control programme had started posing a serious threat to the public health.

“The mosquito breeds in freshwater and has already found sanctuaries in many localities,” they said, adding that a graver situation was developing because the authorities concerned did not take timely measures to do away with these breeding grounds.

“We are still one month away from the ending of the monsoon, and dangers could multiply if more rain comes,” said a senior official in the provincial health department.

Officials in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) said that they were unable to go aggressively against dengue because of certain reasons.

“We are short of funds as it needs millions of rupees for a fully-fledged campaign against dengue in the city,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

He said the corporation had already requested the provincial government for release of the required funds to launch a large-scale drive to reduce the risks of dengue and were still waiting for a nod from the competent authority.

Until arrival of the funds, the KMC was busy in smaller fumigation campaigns, which brought little effect on the overall situation, another official said.

Officials in the provincial government, however, claimed that they had provided ample stock of platelets, anti-body kits and blood bags to many public-sector hospitals in Karachi, adding that it was a part of their plan to prevent an outbreak of the disease.

Sources, however, said the provincial health department and the KMC — the two main platforms responsible for combating deadly disease that killed 32 people, many of them young individuals, and infected more than 6,000 people across Sindh with over 5,000 of them only in Karachi last year — had failed to make a coherent strategy against dengue this year.

With the absence of a recently-closed dengue surveillance cell to pave the way for another larger programme, which failed to kick off because the provincial finance department refused to release the desired Rs42 million, no apparatus exists to take responsibility and gather statistics about the people infected or killed by the disease.

The officials said that although the previous one was a weaker apparatus to check dengue, at least it was working someway.

“Now, no one is responsible to check the disease and if any department or administration is doing anything, such action must be incoherent with little possibility to succeed,” the official added.

Last month, the city commissioner asked deputy commissioners to lead health department officials in inspecting swimming pools, tyre repair shops, graveyards, nurseries, etc, in a bid on the administration’s side to minimise dengue threat.

The officials said most of the last year’s deaths and confirmed dengue cases were reported after the monsoon season. So, they conceded that the danger had just crawled out of its cave.

They said that apart from other actions, a focal group comprising six departments and civic agencies failed to take the rounds of tyre puncture shops to ensure that they regularly change water in their tubs and duly wrap the tyres.

“Such tyres are considered to be an ideal breeding ground for mosquito,” they added.

An official admitted the failure saying that so far negligible visits had been made to tyre selling and repair shops with no follow-up in sight.

The sources in the municipal agencies said that because of uncertainty and a row between the provincial government and municipal authorities over the share in property tax, etc, several health-related and sanitation services had been affected.

Huge piles of garbage have emerged in many residential and commercial areas of the city, which could create an epidemic of viral and communicable diseases as monsoon has already started and greater downpours are expected to come. The situation could worsen if heavy rainfall occurred in Karachi in coming days.

Transmitted by the bite of female mosquitoes, dengue spreads more widely due to increased movement of people and goods, including bamboos and used tyres, as well as floods linked to climate change.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2014