LAHORE: Following the massive spells of rains, the Punjab health department has issued an alert for the possible outbreak of malaria in various parts of the province.

The warning has been generated by the Directorate General of the Health Services Punjab.

The directorate said the Meteorological Department of Pakistan has forecast a rigorous monsoon season due to which floods are also expected in various parts of Punjab.

Under such an environment, it said, the mosquito breeding sites will occur and there is likelihood of malaria outbreak in Punjab.

The health and medical experts feared that the province was on the verge of outbreak of many viral diseases, including dengue, malaria and hepatitis, due to rains.

They warned that the hospitalisation risks were higher owing to the expected outbreak of waterborne diseases in the wake of heavy falls if prompt measures were not adopted.So far, the health authorities have shown their serious concerns over the possible outbreak of the malaria and sent the alert report to all the chief executives and district health officers of Punjab.

“The experience gained during last outbreaks of malaria in the province guides that the preventive measures were the only remedy to avoid the outbreaks,” reads the alert report.

The DG health services directed the respective officials to activate the disease surveillance system, saying no union council, locality and house should remain unvisited by the CDC supervisors concerned.All clinically suspected malaria cases must be tested for verification of malaria microscopy.

They were directed that all the suspected dengue and typhoid cases should be referred for malaria microscopy.

The DG health office also directed them to enhance the larvacidal activities by decreasing the number of breeding sites across Punjab besides completing the epidemiological contact survey and radical treatment of all the malaria positive cases.In order to arrange human resource for the implementation of given instructions, the directorate directed the health officers to decrease the engagement of the staff in ‘irrelevant’ activities.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2023