PESHAWAR: Lack of cooperation by the representatives of local government with regard to preventive measures against dengue fever may lead to further worsening of the situation, say experts.

On September 14, the health department in collaboration with the deputy commissioner office organised a three-day seminar to enlist their support and eliminate breeding sites of mosquitoes inside houses but the event proved a total failure as only 60 councillors attended it.

The seminar didn’t take place for next two days because over 3,000 councillors in Peshawar districts didn’t show any interest in it. Health experts say that they had already cleared breeding sites of mosquitoes outside houses but they were facing daunting task to sneak into houses and eliminate the breeding spaces.

Lack of cooperation by councillors may deepen crisis

“We are banking on the councillors to prevail upon their electorates to do away with water reservoirs inside houses because it is a gigantic task for the health department,” a senior health expert told Dawn.

He said that the number of cases was receding as 307 were tested positive of the total 1,204 suspected patients during the last 24 hours.

He said that 120 of them were hospitalised. So far, 33 people have died of the vector-borne ailment.

Health teams have found larva in every house they visited during the past one month and disposed of the stored water.

There is water in air coolers, mud pots, old tyres and scrap material stored on rooftops of the houses and it is not possible to clear it without the support of councillors.

There is very little likelihood that the situation will improve itself as the next one month is highly favourable environment for breeding of mosquitoes.

It will take at least one month for temperature to drop below 10 centigrade, a condition where mosquitoes couldn’t survive.

The outbreak is confined to Tehkal locality of Peshawar from where 90 per cent of the cases have been reported.

There is a downward dip of cases due to the measures taken by the government during the past one month but the solution is to create awareness among people to cover water pots and deny potential breeding points to mosquitoes.

“Health department has been conducting awareness sessions with local lawyers and prayer leaders regarding prevention of dengue fever but it requires the assistance of councillors, who enjoy support in their localities and can help to eliminate breeding sites inside houses,” said the experts.

The local hospitals have been finding it hard to cope with patients’ load owing to which they have focused on dengue-related activities at the cost of routine patients.

Recently Khyber Teaching Hospital, which receives 95 per cent dengue patients, asked people to contact other hospitals for want of space because the production of mosquitoes was in progress and so were the cases.

The experts claim that the public health issue has become politicised but the ground reality is that there is no effort to do away with the breeding sites or take measures to end power loadshedding and safeguard people against mosquitoes’ bites or make sure smooth water supply to the houses so that people can stop storing the commodity.

“Most of the people store water because they don’t get it on daily basis,” they added.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017