LAHORE, May 21: Health Secretary Arif Nadeem says there is no confirmed dengue case in Punjab at present.

Addressing a meeting of the Dengue Response Committee on Tuesday, he said three dengue cases were confirmed in the province during the last five months and added that two of these Briefing the meeting, the health secretary said dengue tests of 398 patients in Punjab during the last five months were found negative.

He said 495 teams engaged for indoor and outdoor vector surveillance in Lahore found dengue larvae at various places in Ravi Town, Samanabad and Aziz Bhatti Town. He said diagnostic and treatment facilities for dengue patients were available at all government hospitals.

patients were from Faisalabad and one from Lahore.

Headed by Chief Secretary Javed Iqbal, the meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary Iftikhar Ahmad Rao, secretaries of various departments, Lahore Commissioner Rana Nasim and District Coordination Officer Rizwan Mehboob.

King Edward Medical University Vice-Chancellor and Dengue Experts Advisory Group Chairman Prof Dr Faisal Masood said growth of dengue mosquito at open places was not possible nowadays due to the rising temperature, but this mosquito could take refuge in houses and under shady places and multiply in the monsoon season. He said August and September would be ideal months for dengue mosquito’s breeding.

The meeting was informed that seminars were being arranged regularly in educational institutions for public awareness about dengue prevention. Moreover, vector surveillance activities continued in junkyards, graveyards, storehouses, tyre shops and construction sites.

Similarly, indoor surveillance was in progress. It was said that five dengue hotspots were found in Gulberg Town, two in Data Ganj Bakhsh Town and one each in Shalimar Town and Aziz Bhatti Town.

The Lahore commissioner informed the meeting that cases had been registered against 53 owners over detection of dengue larvae at their properties and 13 premises were sealed.