LAHORE, July 24: Warned by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Punjab health department has asked all district governments not to go for fumigation on ‘large scale’ as it causes respiratory problems among the people of the areas concerned.

A health department official told Dawn on Tuesday that after the last year’s dengue fever outbreak, the district governments had asked the provincial authorities to provide them with maximum funds to carry out fumigation as a precautionary measure against the disease. However, he said, the health department told the district governments that since fumigation was not good for human health they should go for residual spray.

Lahore EDO (Health) Dr Inamul Haq also confirmed that the government was following the WHO guidelines on fumigation.

The EDO said it had been a general impression among the masses that large-scale fumigation was the only measure to check the dengue and malaria spread but the ground realities were otherwise. He said the WHO, however, had recommended a ‘controlled fumigation’ for the areas where outbreak of an epidemic was reported.

“On the guidelines provided by the WHO, the City District Government of Lahore is carrying out residual spray and no dengue case has been reported of late in the city,” Dr Haq added.

Fumigation is carried out with the help of a machine in which a solution of insecticide and diesel is used to create smoke that has been found to be hazardous, especially to respiratory system. The solution also causes environmental pollution.

Last year, neither the provincial authorities nor the district governments were fully prepared to tackle the situation when the disease suddenly broke out, resulting in some deaths in Punjab.

The anti-malaria campaign in most districts has also been suspended for the last three years or so. On the direction of the provincial government, all the district governments had stopped anti-mosquito campaign in major parts of the areas falling under their jurisdiction.

A majority of the districts reportedly do not have a full-fledged epidemic control cells which means zero budget allocation for such campaigns.

All EDOs (health) and heads of public sector hospitals have been asked to immediately inform the provincial health department if and when any case of diseases like dengue, malaria, gastroenteritis, cholera, acute respiratory syndrome, polio and measles is reported there so that a team can be sent for conducting a survey in the area concerned.

Insecticide manufacturers have been benefiting from the uncontrolled growth of flies and mosquitoes. Citizens can exterminate insects only inside their houses as they can’t control their growth in the open and have to use electronic devices or repellents to keep them away.

The dengue fever is caused by a specific mosquito type that bites humans, especially around the time of sunrise and sunset. The breeding of such mosquitoes begins in October and continues till the advent of cold weather. Therefore, the authorities concerned will have to launch a public awareness campaign by early September.