LAHORE: The district administration said on Thursday it had successfully implemented the ‘Dengue Crush programme’ in the metropolitan city, however, several people approached by Dawn contradicted the claim.

Two days ago, the Punjab health department submitted to the Lahore High Court that there were 19,595 confirmed patients of dengue virus in the province, and 81 people had died.

However, in the last 24 hours, 440 people tested positive for dengue in the province, and of them, 347 belonged to Lahore.

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Umar Sher Chattha held a meeting to review the Dengue Crush programme to improve the surveillance in the city. A report was also presented in the meeting.

According to the report, the anti-dengue programme had been carried out in the city for the last eight days and dengue surveillance was conducted in 8,161 houses and spray was carried out in 3,375 houses while fogging was done in 540 places.

The DC claimed that workers were carrying out the Dengue Crash programme with full potential and appealed to the citizens to cooperate with them.

A resident of Harbanspura told Dawn they have not seen any fogging and anti-dengue spray in their area.

He said only some workers visited their area for inspection to check the presence of any stagnant water in and around their house.

Another resident of Gulberg also complained that the authorities were running the anti-dengue programme on TV channels, but he did not see anyone in their areas.

A citizen from Ichhra said the surveillance had been very poor in recent months.

A resident of OPF Society, however, confirmed that anti-dengue workers visited their house and conducted spray in their house and also in an under-construction building and also found dengue larva there.

Meanwhile, Shalimar Assistant Commissioner Tehniyat Bukhari visited Amir Town and Aziz Bhatti Zone to inspect anti-dengue activities.

According to a news release, she ordered the spray at three places where the teams found dengue larva.

Model Town Assistant Commissioner Zeeshan Nadeem also visited Faisal Town to check activities under the Dengue Crash programme and conducted surveillance of 14 houses.

Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department Secretary Imran Sikander Baloch said in a statement that 1,438 dengue patients were being treated in the province.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2021