RAWALPINDI: Fewer dengue cases were reported this year compared to last year and most of the cases reported in Rawalpindi hospitals came from Islamabad, according to an official of the City District Government Rawalpindi.

As of Tuesday, 237 patients are being treated for dengue at the three government run hospitals in the garrison city of which 107 are in the Holy Family Hospital (HFH), 109 at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and 21 at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

According to a senior CDGR official, only 150 of these patients had been diagnosed with dengue and that the test results of the remaining 87 had not arrived yet.

“Of the 150 diagnosed dengue cases, 54 patients are from Rawalpindi, 92 from Islamabad, three from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and two from other cities in Punjab,” he said.

The official said that most of the patients from Islamabad are from near the I.J Principle Road, the Islamabad Expressway and Peshawar Road.

He said that the number of cases reported this year is less that the number of cases last year.

“In 2015, 472 dengue cases were reported from Rawal Town and this year till October 4, 164 cases have come from the same area. In Potohar Town, 159 people were diagnosed with dengue in 2015 and 60 this year. Similarly, 103 dengue patients had come from Chaklala last year and 25 this year.

In Rawalpindi Cantonment, 101 dengue cases were reported in 2015 and 58 this year,” he said.

“The anti-dengue campaign started earlier this year, which may be why there were fewer patients and there have so far been no deaths from the virus in Rawalpindi city,” he added.

When asked, District Coordination Officer (DCO) Talat Mehmood Gondal said that the dengue virus had not spread as much as last year due to coordinated efforts by various government departments.

He said that at the start of the season, government departments were told to spray anti-dengue medicines in all those union councils from which cases had been reported.

The DCO added that the government wanted to eliminate dengue mosquitoes once and for all and in this regard, had asked concerned departments to check in houses and commercial plazas as well as raise awareness about the prevention of the virus.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2016