PESHAWAR: The health department is struggling to deal with Dengue Haemorrhagic patients coming from Lahore and Rawalpindi as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continues to report fewer infections as compared to last year.

“We have recorded only 209 confirmed dengue cases as compared to 7,158 patients detected during this period last year. Massive decline in the number of patients is result of the early implementation of Dengue Action Plan 2023,” Mohammad Ajmal Khan, a Peshawar-based medical entomologist, told Dawn.

According to him, health department has deployed 40 medical entomologists in all districts. They are supported by lady health workers and line departments at the district and provincial level due to which fewer cases of dengue have been detected so far in the province.

The infection is widespread but the timely response coupled with awareness at the community level controlled spread of the virus. Peshawar has reported 38 dengue cases, Mardan 32, Swabi 19, Charsadda 14, Battagram 12, Chitral Lower seven, Bajaur, Kohat and Nowshera six each while other districts have recorded one or two cases.

Official attributes decline in number of patients to timely enforcement of action plan

“Situation in Peshawar, the epicentre of the virus, is completely under control as there are no clusters but cases are reported from isolated places,” said Ajmal Khan.

He said that health professionals responded to case detection in all districts as LHWs and malaria teams visited the neighbourhoods to carry out insecticidal spray in at least 20 houses to put brakes on the spread of the virus.

The health department in collaboration with district administrations has been holding daily meetings of district dengue prevention response unit which takes stock of the situation and swings into action where is needed. In hotspot districts, the assistant commissioners regularly visit the infected areas and meet the people to inform them about the cause of infection and its prevention.

Ajmal Khan said that health secretary and director-general health services monitored the situation on regular basis despite the low number of cases because showing any laxity could snowball into outbreaks.

In the districts having more dengue cases, health department has deployed three to five entomologists, who are working with line departments to do away with breeding sites of mosquitoes, the transmitters of the infection.

The entomologist said that the role of LHWs was significant in curtailing the virus because they visited houses and scaled up awareness among women to eliminate the disease and take measures to deny breeding spots to mosquitoes.

“Similarly, the district administrations are playing vital roles to convince the owners of automobile workshops to check the tyres, which are the main cause of mosquito breeding. The tyres lying in workshops accumulate water,” he said.

He said that the infection would continue to occur till November when the temperature went down because mosquitoes did not survive in winter. “However, September and October are the months in which we will continue more efforts. Last year, we recorded more dengue cases in September,” he added.

Ajmal Khan said that people were required to avoid mosquito bites and stay safe from the infection. Last year, the province recorded 18,000 dengue cases with 18 mortalities but so far no death was reported, he said.

“As per Dengue Action Plan, our teams continue to visit houses and convince people to avoid storing water in uncovered pots so that mosquitoes’ population doesn’t increase,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2023