KARACHI, Oct 9: In order to effectively check the re-emergence of mosquito-borne diseases there is a great need for the identification of breeding places of vectors and development of a close coordination among the relevant departments.

These observations were made by speakers at a seminar organised by the infectious diseases department of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Tuesday.

A number of speakers also urged the government to improve the dengue reporting system besides ensuring free of cost treatment of the disease including provision of platelets units to poor patients undergoing treatment at government hospitals.

The principal of the Dow Medical College, Prof Salahuddin Afsar, said that since we had already experienced an outbreak of dengue fever, the only solution to this problem was to take preventive measures with the support of the government, private organisations and the community. “Prevention is the main key to combating dengue as no treatment is available”, he added.

He laid emphasis on the eradication of breeding places of mosquitoes including Aedes aegypti, the one responsible for the deadly dengue fever.

Prof Afsar viewed that the recent spell of heavy rains and the ongoing construction activities in the city had been mainly responsible for the unprecedented growth of mosquitoes in the city.

The haphazard digging of land and roads and pooling of water at the construction sites, had contributed to the high breeding of mosquitoes during the last couple of years, he remarked.

Dr Iftikhar Ahmad of infectious disease department said that the best practice to control vector densities and diseases transmission was to find and eliminate their breeding places. He also recommended frequent clean-up and public hygiene campaigns to control the spread of such infections.

Talking about effective measures against dengue fever, he suggested that builders and construction firms should be disciplined through some legislation to avoid unnecessary accumulation of water and eliminate chances for breeding of mosquitoes. Construction companies and public utility project contractors should avoid open water reservoirs and also ensure plugging of loopholes, otherwise they could turn into considerable breeding points, he noted.

The medical superintendent of Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Kaleem Butt, said that his hospital normally catered to patients coming from the lower income group and as such provision of platelet units to dengue patients had been a problem.

The government, NGOs and philanthropists should develop a mechanism on a permanent basis to solve the issue, he said, adding that the government had borne the cost of platelets supplied to dengue patients last year.

Dr Rafiq Khanani of the DUHS said that despite warnings from experts regarding a possible outbreak of dengue there still remained much to be desired of the relevant organisations and hospitals.

He was of the view that in order to ensure meaningful coordination between the relevant authorities, the data pertaining to dengue must be compiled in a foolproof manner.

He said that many of the private hospitals and specialists’ clinics and general practitioners or family doctors had been attending to around one to seven viral hemorrhagic fever or dengue fever patients on a daily basis but the data was not being recorded officially and as such effective disease surveillance activities remained a far cry.

Tahir Shamsi of Bismillah Taqee Institute of Blood Disease said that low platelet counts in dengue patients had been treated by platelets concentrate transfusion at the earliest. He said that bleeding should be checked in patients and arrangements should also be made for frequent examinations of patient’s blood samples.