RAWALPINDI: District Health Authority on Friday sought an additional amount of Rs75.733 million to run the anti-dengue campaign and avoid further spread of the disease.

The authority submitted a written demand to Deputy Commissioner Saifullah Dogar in his office during a meeting held to review the arrangements for fumigation .“It is requested that an additional fund of Rs75.733 million including Rs59m for staff, Rs0.3m for transportation of goods, Rs0.950m for repair of transport and Rs.0.3m for repair of machinery and equipment be provided,” a senior official said.

“Petroleum charges are Rs8.820m and Rs4.2m are needed for printing and publication to conduct awareness drives,” he said.

Total 70,000 suspected patients reported to Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Holy Family Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital from August to November this year. Among these, more than 12,000 patients tested positive for dengue while 40 patients died in the city. The remaining patients were discharged after providing them treatment.

More vehicles, fuel and fogging machines are required to continue campaign, says official

A health department official said they were facing shortage of manpower and funds to run the drive effectively. He said on the request of the department, the authority recruited 1,800 more staff and increased the number of sanitary patrols to 3,100.

According to him, the health authority utilised funds allocated for health services on the purchase of fuel and operational charges as well as an awareness campaign and payment of salaries to salaries.

This fiscal year, the department carried out fumigation drives thrice in a short span of time. The department also launched anti-polio and anti-measles drives that also consumed fuel allocated to the department.When contacted, District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Suhail Ahmed confirmed that the health department had sought additional funds from the Punjab government. He said the authority had informed the deputy commissioner about ground realities and the latter assured the authority that additional funds would be arranged.

For the shortage of manpower, he said recruitments were made on the directives of the government. He said the government had directed the authority to recruit staff to launch the anti-dengue drives.

He said the department required vehicles, fuel and more fogging machines to continue the drive.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2019