LAHORE: The Cabinet Committee on Dengue has urged the residents of big cities of the province to drain water from their room coolers to check breeding of the mosquito causing the vector-borne disease.

Presided over by Minister for Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Khwaja Salman Rafique, a meeting of the committee was informed on Wednesday that due to the vigorous indoor and outdoor surveillance, dengue larva was being reported in large quantity, which was very helpful to check the growth of dengue mosquitoes.

Reports from Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and other big cities suggested that water accumulated in room coolers has become a big source of dengue larva breeding.

The meeting was informed that out of the 98 confirmed dengue patients reported in Punjab during the current year, 79 belonged to Punjab while the remaining came here from other provinces.

The situation in Rawalpindi has been fully under control as only five [confirmed] dengue cases have so far been reported in the current year, compared to 49 [cases] last year.

Additional Director General of Dengue Control Programme, Dr Farrukh Sultan, who had been in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa capital in connection with the dengue control activities, said due to lack of awareness, almost every house in Peshawar has become a dengue breeding hot spot.

Khwaja Salman Rafique directed that dengue sensitive districts particularly Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore and Sheikhupura should be given special attention.

He said due to the outbreak [of dengue] in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the administration of Rawalpindi should remain more vigilant and effective measures for dengue control should also be continued in the district.Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khwaja Imran Nazir said he would approach Minister of State for Health Saira Afzal Tarar to hold a joint meeting so that concrete steps could be taken by the provincial health departments with the cooperation of the federal government to control dengue in Islamabad.

The meeting also reviewed the situation of congo, chickenpox and H1 N1 influenza in the province.

Additional Secretary (Technical) Dr Asim Altaf informed the meeting that effective measures were taken with the collaboration of livestock department to check congo.

Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Ali Jan Khan said `health days’ would be observed in mid-October [this year] during which more than 100,000 healthcare professionals would be vaccinated against different viral diseases including H1 N1 influenza.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2017