PESHAWAR: The health authorities detected 46 new dengue fever cases across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday, officials said.

They said that of the 46 cases, 16 were reported in the provincial capital, which had thus far recorded 2,329 cases.

Breakup of the province-wide dengue cases given by the health department shows that Peshawar tops the list with 2,329 positive cases, Swat recorded 472 cases, Swabi 369, Mansehra 333, Haripur 222, Bajaur 228, Mardan 264 and Nowshera 179 patients.

KP has reported a total of about 5,835 dengue cases thus far. According to details, currently 168 patients are being treated for dengue at various hospitals in the province, while 34 patients were admitted on Saturday.

Official claims situation under control

The figures show that a total of 5,657 dengue patients have been treated and discharged from hospitals till Saturday.

An official said that the situation in the province was under control. He said that there was great follow-up after 2017 outbreak in the province due to which the situation remained in control in 2018.

He claimed that to some extent the health officials were reluctant to go outright against dengue due to overactive accountability bodies. He said that the officials feared that at some point in future they might face the accountability drive in case they behaved in active way even in good faith. He pointed out that the anti-dengue efforts involved purchase of insecticides in large quantities and in emergency situation it required quick judgment.

However, the officials are scared of being questioned for decisions they have taken in good faith, he claimed.

The official said that there had been no confirmed dengue-related death anywhere in the province and those claiming such deaths were mostly doing so out of greed for compensation money from the government.

He said that in last outbreak several cases which the families claimed as because of dengue had in fact occurred due to other reasons.

The official said that the number of cases was already on downslide and as temperature dropped in November there would be no new cases in the province. He said that there was no shortage of platelets or any medicine in the province.

In Haripur, over 202 dengue positive cases have been reported in different areas of the district so far, according to official sources.

The data collected from the office of district health officer shows that the district headquarters hospital, Haripur, has registered and treated a total of 202 patients from Aug 15 to Oct 11.

These patients, 74 women among them, hailed from different urban and rural areas of district, including Beer, Guloo Bandi, Sikandarpur, Kot Najibullah, railway station, Eidgah, Hattar, Bandi Muneem, Khalabat Township, Bandi Bareela, Pind Muneem, Kalinjar, Darwesh and some localities from Haripur city.

Sources said that of these patients 44 were still admitted at the DHQ hospital’s dengue ward, while 13 had been referred to the Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, for tertiary care. All others have been discharged after their full recovery.

According to Dr Sher Bahadur, in-charge dengue programme in Haripur, steps were being taken to conduct fog spray in the dengue-hit areas so that the other population could be protected.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2019