LAHORE: The City District Government of Lahore has sought a regular dengue surveillance of all nurseries, parks, greenbelts, open spaces, ponds and graveyards on a daily basis, directing officials to focus on such premises in view of a possible threat to dengue spread in the provincial metropolis.

Officials say though the surveillance of all places/sites vulnerable to dengue is mandatory under the standard operating procedure, the field teams comprising officials of the district health, public health departments and respective town municipal administrations have been directed to ensure cleanliness, insecticide spray and destruct dengue larvae at these places on a daily basis.

“Since these sites are much vulnerable and may turn into dengue breeding ‘factories’, we have directed the surveillance teams to pay regular visits to such premises,” an official told Dawn.

He said the mosquito-friendly weather was no less than a big challenge for the teams as it was conducive to breeding of dengue larvae at many places. “All teams are detecting a large growth of dengue larvae at various places during their daily visits. And we are destructing the breeding grounds through insecticides,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the DCO visited a nursery near Kalma Chowk and got the dengue surveillance work completed under his supervision.

Published in Dawn, September 16th , 2014