RAWALPINDI: The city’s three government-run hospitals on Friday received another 89 dengue patients, taking the season’s tally to 5,565.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Asif Arbab Niazi expressed the hope that the dengue cases will reduce after mid November and it will end by December.

“The current environment is conducive for mosquitoes,” he said, addingthe health authority teams have started indoor surveillance in the affected areas. He said that fogging had been conducted in the areas where adult dengue mosquitoes found.

He said that they were also avoiding extensive fogging in the city due to smog.

He said as soon as the temperature dropped to 10 degree Celsius, the dengue mosquitoes’ breeding will stop.

He said that the people should adopt safety measures including use mosquitoes repellent and wear full sleeves shirts in houses also.

Earlier, till September 8, only 157 dengue patients were reported in the district but the number increased in last two months.

A large number of dengue patients were reported in three government run hospitals including Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital Raja Bazaar.

Majority of the patients in government run hospitals arrived from 70 union councils of the city and 20 wards of Rawalpindi and Chaklala Cantonment Board.

On Friday, 209 patients landed in three government run hospitals while 89 tested positive for dengue.

At present, a total 240 dengue patients are under treatment in the hospitals including 82 dengue patients in Holy Family Hospital, 40 in Benazir Bhutto Hospital, 19 in Rawalpindi Teaching Hospital and 26 in Fauji Foundation Hospital while 73 patients are in private hospitals.

A senior doctor of Holy Family Hospital said that the hospital had sufficient beds to accommodate more patients as at present there are arrangements of 150 beds in the hospital while it will increase to accommodate more than 200 patients at a time.

“The district administration is working day and night to clear the city and cantonment from the dengue virus,” said a senior official of district administration.

He said the third party audit of the anti-dengue drive continued in the city and cantonment area by agriculture and local government departments to check the work of the teams of health authority and other departments.

He said the district administration declared Chak Jalaldin and Kotha Kalan union councils of the garrison city as sensitive. However, he said that the majority of patients arrived from Gulistan Colony, Morgah, Airport Housing Society and New Afzal Town near Gulraiz.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2024