PESHAWAR: Health department will seek help on weather forecast from Environmental Protection Agency to devise dengue action plan for next year.

“A lot depends on weather forecast to devise policy for dengue control in 2024, therefore, health department is seeking help of Environmental Protection Agency regarding rains and climatic conditions,” officials told this scribe said.

They said that the dengue season was almost over as the last case was recorded three weeks ago. However, the department is approaching EPA to get a picture about climatic situation next year so that interventions could be planned in dengue action plan (DAP) 2024.

Officials said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the services of 41 medical entomologists. They said that entomologists were recruited in 2017 when an outbreak of dengue haemorrhagic fever killed about 70 people and sent 25,343 to hospitals.

KP has not recorded a death due to the ailment this year

With the deployment of entomologists, dengue has been controlled in the province as it has reported no death due to the ailment in the current year. The tally of confirmed cases is 737, the lowest number of dengue patients recorded by any province in the country.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa detected 22,960 dengue cases in 2022 and 10,615 in 2021. This year, the province started activities in a timely manner with deployment of entomologists due to which the production of mosquitoes remained under control.

Of the recorded patients in the province, about 80 per cent had travel history to Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and other cities where they contracted the infection, officials said.

They said that the entomologists had been appointed for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and now the department wanted 10 more positions for newly-merged districts so that they could be deployed there on permanent basis to put brakes on production of mosquitoes, the transmitters of the vector-borne ailment.

They said that dengue serotype played an important role in its spreading. If serotype enters a community, the people produce lifelong immunity. However, if another serotype enters the same community, there is greater chance of morbidity.

“Aedes aegypti is also a main factor in the cluster of cases and it is the primary vector of dengue fever. Aedes albopictus is the secondary vector of dengue fever. Aedes aegypti is the urban vector and aedes albopictus is the rural and urban vector,” said officials.

They said that entomologists were important for surveillance, not only to control dengue but also other vector-borne diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis and Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).

“Once we get the report regarding climate forecast in 2024, we will devise dengue action plan for next year. In case of more rains, we need to devise strategy on how to prevent standing water pools in the localities and deny breeding spots to mosquitoes,” said officials. According to them, climatic changes, temperature and rain are very important factors in control measures about prevention of dengue.

Officials said that they would plan in the light of climate forecast for vector surveillance and case response next year. Training of staff would start from next month on detection of larvae and methods for elimination as cases would likely to start emerging in March, they added.

“Rains and subsequent floods have always been instrumental in spike in cases every year. Therefore, we continue to incorporate slight amendments to DAP in accordance with the ground realities and in the light of past experience. Any input from EPA will be given weight,” they said.

Officials said that the disease had been endemic in the province for the past few years due to which the level of public awareness regarding its preventive measures had also increased.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023