PESHAWAR: Health department continues campaign against haemorrhagic dengue fever as the vector-born ailment has infected three more people during the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of positive cases to 80 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year so far.

“Among the confirmed dengue patients, 64.84 per cent are men and 12.16 per cent are women. Of the total cases, 25 are in 21-30 age group, 17 in 31-40 age group, 11 in 10-20 age group, nine in 41-50 age group while the number of infected children is four,” Dr Irshad Roghani, the director of public health, told Dawn.

He said that the number of infections was lesser than that of last year during the corresponding period. However, he said that anti-dengue campaign would be continued till November, especially in the high-risk districts where cases were being reported.

Dr Irshad said that Peshawar, the capital of the province, was epicentre of the mosquito-borne disease where 17 cases were registered. He said that 10 of those cases were reported in July.

Official says number of infections is less than that of previous year

“Peshawar has been the hotbed of dengue virus since 2017, when 25,000 infections were reported with 70 deaths. The department has been holding awareness walks where people are informed about causes of the disease and preventive measures,” he said.

He said that Bannu was ranked second with 11 cases and Swabi and Dir Lower reported 10 patients each. He added that anti-dengue efforts were intensified in high-risk districts which also included Bajaur and Abbottabad that recorded seven patients each.

Dr Irshad said that 38 dengue cases were reported in June and 22 in July in the province so far. “We have reported all cases from 14 districts and the clusters of dengue cases have been identified in Peshawar, Bannu and Dir Lower,” he added.

He said that at present only one patient was under-treatment at hospital while two others were isolated. He said that of the total confirmed dengue cases, 23 had so far been hospitalised and discharged after they recovered. He added that there were nine active patients in the province currently.

Physicians, meanwhile, said that preventive measures were required to stem the spread of the disease in the infected areas as it could turn into outbreaks that could snowball into major public health issue. The government, they said, had already approved Dengue Action Plan (DAP) for the current year after going through the previous plans to ensure that weaknesses were overcome.

They said that the number of dengue infections in the province was 747, the lowest cases recorded by any province in the country. They said that under DAP, plans were devised for districts where deputy commissioners and district health officers regularly held meetings and discussed the situation.

Experts said that support of religious scholars was also enlisted to scale up awareness about the reasons of the ailment and persuade people to use impregnated bed nets to avoid mosquito bites.

They said that engagement of lady health workers was playing vital part in prevention and control of dengue as they visited houses and convinced women to avoid storage of water in uncovered pots and deny breeding spots to mosquitoes, the carrier of the disease.

They said that power loadshedding in most of the areas in the province, especially in Peshawar, was the main cause of the disease as it not only exposed people to mosquitoes-bites but also forced them to store water in their houses that served as breeding points of mosquitoes.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2024