RAWALPINDI: The three government-run hospitals in the garrison city on Friday received another 60 patients from Rawalpindi while 26 patients arrived from other cities, taking this season’s tally to 734 patients.

However, total 167 confirmed dengue patients have been admitted to three government-run hospitals including 79 in Holy Family Hospital (HFH), 32 in Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and 56 in District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

As many as 120 patients in three government run hospitals belonged to Rawalpindi District, 39 to Islamabad, three to Haripur, two to Poonch and one each to Kotli, Bagh and Sudhanoti.

According to the data of District Health Authority, 27 patients arrived from Potohar Town, six from cantonment, 10 from city areas, one from Potohar rural areas, three from Chaklala and one from Taxila.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Anser Ishaq told Dawn that this year the health authority found dengue larvae and mosquitoes more than last year mainly due to heavy rain from June 16 to Sept 9.

He said that last year only nine cases were reported till September, eight in 2020 but the number was high in 2019 when 955 patients were detected till September and this year the virus was found in 734 people.

He feared the trend showed the number of the cases might increase in the coming days.

Talking about the plan, he said that health department officials had been directed to improve the surveillance of larvae.

“The administration had been asked to lodge an FIR against the owners of the domestic and commercial units and seal the commercial buildings and shops immediately if dengue larvae was detected there,” he said.

He said this year a joint strategy had been devised to avoid spread of dengue virus in the district with the help of cantonment boards and Islamabad administration.

“In the past, cantonments and border areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad had been ignored and mostly patients landed in hospitals from these areas,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2022