RAWALPINDI: Though the Punjab government has been blaming the cantonment boards for the spread of the dengue virus in the district, most of the cases have been reported from the Rawal and Potohar towns.

According to officials, only 35 cases were reported from cantonment areas while 152 dengue patients have so far arrived in the government hospitals from the town areas.

A meeting at the Commissioner Office on Saturday reviewed the arrangements to avoid the spread of dengue virus. The meeting was presided over by Punjab Minister for Labour and Manpower Raja Ashfaq Sarwar.

Special Branch report shows most of the cases were from town areas

Adviser on Health Khawaja Salman Rafique, Commissioner Rawalpindi Zahid Saeed, DCO Sajjad Zafar Dall, elected representatives, PML-N leaders and government officials attended the meeting.

A city district government official told Dawn that the Punjab government representatives informed the meeting that most of the patients arriving at the government hospitals in the garrison city were from the cantonment areas.

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) officials, however, presented figures collected by the Special Branch of the police which showed that only 35 dengue patients had reported from cantonment areas while 152 had come from inner parts of the city, including Mohanpura, Khayaban-i-Sir Syed, Dhoke Hassu, Dhoke Mangtal and Pirwadhai areas.

He said the health department did not carry out anti-dengue sprays along the banks of Leh Nullah, which resulted in the spread of the dengue virus in Gowalmandi in the jurisdiction of the cantonment board.

Interestingly, he added, all the dengue patients were from the areas along the Leh Nullah. After the flood in the Nullah, it was the duty of the health department to carry out anti-dengue and anti-malaria sprays in these localities, he added.

“Total 152 dengue patients were admitted to the Holy Family Hospital, 11 to the Benazir Bhutto Hospital and 25 to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital. So far, 188 dengue patients have reported to the three hospitals,” said a senior official of the health department.   

When contacted, Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) Executive Officer Fahim Zafar Khan said they were working day and night to eliminate the dengue mosquitoes in Gowalmandi.

He said it was wrong that most of the patients arriving in the hospitals were from the cantonment areas. He said a majority of the cases were reported from the inner city areas. He said more than 100 people were engaged in the anti-dengue campaigns in different areas of the cantonment.

Talking to Dawn, Commissioner Zahid Saeed referred to the activities undertaken to avoid the spread of dengue virus as per directions of the Punjab government. He said the district administration had been asked to conduct fogging in the high-risk union councils.

He said over 59 cases had been reported from Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards as per the record of the government-run hospitals while the remaining patients had come from the city areas.

Meanwhile, addressing the meeting, the minister for labour and manpower said the dengue prevalence had been given due priority by the district administration and all the government departments in Rawalpindi.

He said it had been decided that the number of focal persons in all the teaching hospitals would be increased for conducting case response so that all the remedial measures could be adopted to eliminate larvae and dengue mosquitoes in the affected areas without any delay.

He also emphasised upgrading the dengue patient treatment facilities at the Cantonment Hospital. The health adviser, Khawaja Salman Rafique, said a team of experts was stationed in Rawalpindi to provide technical assistance in combating dengue.

He said he was supervising the activities being carried out at different levels.

The EDO Health, Dr Zafar Iqbal Gondal, informed the meeting that the anti-dengue teams were actively engaged in the high-risk areas.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2014