LAHORE: The health department on Tuesday formed an inquiry committee in the wake of presence of suspected patients of two deadly viruses – Zika and Monkeypox – in Lahore.

Special health secretary Shakeel Ahmad has been appointed inquiry officer who has been tasked to submit his report within 48 hours.

The committee was constituted after the ‘Disease Surveillance System’ of the Punjab Information and Technology Board (PITB) reported the presence of the suspected patients of these two viral diseases in the Government Nawaz Sharif Yakki Gate Hospital, Lahore.

Mr Shakeel said that the PTIB had reported the two diseases after the Government Nawaz Sharif Yakki Gate Hospital, Lahore, uploaded information on its dashboard.

However, initially the hospital failed to produce evidence of presence of the suspected patients, he said.

Apparently, it seemed the data was uploaded mistakenly and further inquiry had been launched to dig out facts. The officials concerned, if found guilty of charges, would be fixed, the health secretary said.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2019