KARACHI: The city administration on Tuesday declared an ‘emergency’ in all the relevant departments to combat the increasing incidence of dengue haemorrhagic fever, authorising officials to seal any place that posed danger to human life because of the disease, officials said.

“The city commissioner has issued a notification to all the departments concerned, asking them to implement the measures suggested in it to minimise the lethality of the disease,” said a spokesperson for the commissioner’s office, adding that the notification was circulated among officials of various departments who attended a meeting.

The notification said the departments concerned should take all measures to stop spread and nurturing of dengue mosquitoes. It added that any place where officials feared spread of the vector or the territory that caused its multiplication would be sealed to safeguard human life.

The notification also ordered expediting measures to treat dengue patients.

Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, who presided over the meeting of the officials concerned at his office, was briefed about the measures being taken by different departments in the metropolis. The meeting decided to examine all tyre shops, swimming pools and other places. The deputy commissioners of the six districts of Karachi would oversee the exercise.

However, sources said, despite repeated claims by the relevant authorities that they were making all possible efforts to curb the dengue rampage, there were areas where officials detected the mosquito’s larva at a disturbing level, which could worsen the already fragile situation.

Dengue has killed six people in Karachi while more than 2,500 people have been affected by it this year.

Sources said the municipalities and provincial health departments across the metropolis showed their satisfaction about the fumigation campaigns, which included the internal residual sprays (IRS) in and around the houses of the victims of the disease.

The officials claimed they were visiting all the facilities and establishments, which were favourite breeding grounds for the mosquito, and making it sure that they should no longer be hotbeds for the viral disease.

Those facilities included tyre-mending shops, car service stations, tyre warehouses and swimming pools. Some officials in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation said their teams had detected the mosquito’s larva in at least 10 per cent shops of the Pak Colony and Shershah neighbourhoods, which was alarming.

Experts said large swathes of Korangi, Bin Qasim and Malir were cause of concern because of detection of larva there.

Officials said fumigation campaigns had little or no effect until fogging machines were introduced to cover every nook and corner of an affected establishment or house.

Officials said that of the people who had died of the tropical disease in Sindh since 2005, more than 60 per cent were aged between 20 and 34 years. Some 20 per cent of them were aged 35 years or more while the rest were children or teenagers.

Year 2006 was the worst in terms of deaths when 49 people died because of the lethal virus.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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