PESHAWAR: A total of 204 new dengue cases were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday, including 99 in Peshawar district, with health officials complaining that the people’s failure to take precautionary measures is causing the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.

According to officials, around a dozen villages in Peshawar have been recording high dengue incidence for the last few years.

They told Dawn that Tehkal, Danishabad, Achi, Sufaid Dheri, Sarband and Board areas were the hotbeds for dengue fever.

The officials said Peshawar district had recorded around 70 deaths from dengue in the last few years and 90 of the deceased belonged to the areas in question.

Most patients belong to Peshawar

They said the health department had asked the residents to take preventive measures against mosquito bites, but the requests largely fell on deaf ears.

The officials said Tehkal area had around 3,000 automobile workshops, which provided mosquitoes perfect breeding grounds in the shape of old tyres and spare parts lying in the open.

The officials complained that by and large, the residents didn’t cover water pots at home or outside properly.

They said large air coolers were another cause for the spread of dengue as the people didn’t change water used in them for days and thus, causing its stagnation for mosquito production.

Meanwhile, the residents of these areas insisted that they had to store water for use due to the frequent power cuts.

They complained that puddles were a common sight in most dengue-hit villages due to the negligence of the relevant authorities.

The residents added that their areas weren’t fumigated nor were the puddles done away with.

The officials told Dawn that in Dec 2019, a high-powered committee was formed to ensure the implementation of the Dengue Action Plan for the control and prevention of the mosquito-borne disease, especially in Peshawar, but it swung into action only after the fever began killing people.

They said 2,660 dengue cases had so far been reported in the province and 765 of them were from Peshawar, including 99 during the last 24 hours.

The officials said the province had 236 dengue patients in hospitals and 108 of them were in Peshawar and they belonged to the endemic villages.

They said the action plan was meant for making coordinated efforts for vector control by ensuring timely availability of the resources and efforts by the relevant departments for dengue prevention.

The officials said under the plan, the government was to begin taking measures from Jan and Feb to eliminate the production of mosquitoes with full administrative support at divisional and district levels pursuing a multi-sectoral approach.

They said the health department had been seeking support to prevent the disease through a coordinated approach with the other department responsible for killing insects and prevention of stagnant water pools and supply of electricity and water in timely manner backed by administrative machinery, but to no avail.

The officials said the health department’s role was limited to patient care.

They said had the action plan formulated on the recommendations of the World Health Organisation was implemented, dengue fever would have been under control.

They feared a repeat of the 2017-like situation when 60,000 suspected patients were admitted by hospitals and 11,000 tested positive for dengue.

The officials said 2018 and 2019 recorded no death from dengue fever, but the WHO had warned a severer outbreak of the disease in future in case of a lack of preventive measures.

They said four people had died of dengue in the current year.

The officials said the main part of the strategy was to eliminate mosquitoes as dengue had no cure and it was self-limiting.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021