PESHAWAR: Health department has decided to continue anti-dengue campaign despite advent of winter season to be able to further reduce incidences of the mosquito-borne ailment next year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“We aren’t going to sit idle despite bringing down dengue cases from 17,000 in 2022 to 670 this year so far. Last week, we detected nine dengue cases. This week, the number of infections is only four but there are is no letup as our coordinated efforts continue,” Dr Ikramullah Khan, the focal person for dengue haemorrhagic fever at health department, told Dawn.

According to him, the province has been endemic for vector-borne diseases from the past several years. “The causes of the ailment are prevalent here but we are applying new techniques to eliminate mosquitoes, the carrier of the virus. Epidemiologically, there is no threat of disease as of now but our work is in progress to ensure that next year, the cases are further reduced,” he said.

Dr Ikram said that many interventions were made to kill larva and curtail mosquito production in stagnant water. “Use of Temephos granules has helped us a great deal to put brakes on breeding of mosquitoes. It not only kills larva but other infected insects also. Temephose, a larvicidal, kills larva and blocks the water surface,” he said.

He said that countrywide 16,850 dengue cases were recorded in the current year. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported only 670 cases compared to 9,336 in Punjab, 2,666 in Balochistan, 2,237 in Islamabad and 1,959 in Sindh. “The reason for fewer patients in the province is that we began anti-dengue work in January due to which the virus remained under control,” he added.

However, focus is still being laid on high-risk districts and hotspots union councils throughout the province. The department has detected 157 dengue cases in Peshawar, 69 in Swabi, 47 in Mardan, 41 in Kohat, 37 in Charsadda, 36 in Battagram, 34 in Abbottabad, 33 in Haripur, 28 in Malakand, 26 in Lakki Marwat, 25 in Mansehra and 22 in Bajaur.

The disease is widespread in the province but other districts have reported cases in ones and twos and are not source of concern.

“The new interventions of health department also include enlisting support of religious scholars, who urge people in Friday’s sermons to maintain cleanliness and don’t allow stagnant water in the localities to curtail mosquitoes’ population,” he said.

Dr Ikram said that they also raised awareness among people regarding prevention of dengue virus including covering water pots because the main source of the virus was uncovered water-filled utensils inside houses. Lady health workers also visited houses where they trained women to check larva in pots and air-coolers and eliminate the same, he said.

Education department has been holding awareness sessions in morning assemblies where experts educate students and teachers on prevention and control measures of dengue. Health department has full support of all line departments and deputy commissioners hold meetings in every district on regular basis where decisions are taken on the field reports submitted by entomologists.

Dr Ikram said that Health Secretary Mahmood Aslam Wazir was directly monitoring the situation to ensure implementation of Dengue Action Plan 2023.

He said that through those interventions, the number of other vector-borne diseases such as malaria would also come down. “Under the new strategy, there will be no pause in anti-dengue activities as we have planned to eliminate the disease through prevention,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2023