PESHAWAR: Health department has directed divisional commissioners and district health officers (DHOs) to start anti-dengue activities in line with Dengue Action Plan 2026 after detection of two cases in Kohat district.
The directives have been issued by the director-general health services, Dr Shaheen Afridi, who instructed the DHOs to immediately start implementing Dengue Action Plan 2026 already approved by Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah.
They have been asked to intensify district level dengue response activities, including surveillance, vector control measures, public awareness campaigns and identification of hotspots in addition to effective coordination with municipal authorities and allied departments to implement integrated vector control management strategies.
Entomologists have been directed to submit reports about larvae on daily basis. They have been asked to report and confirm dengue cases on daily basis to ensure timely measures for prevention and control of transmission of the vector-borne ailment.
Entomologists to submit reports about presence of larvae on daily basis
Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever continues to emerge in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa every year as the virus is often transported from Karachi or Rawalpindi and transmitted to local population because of presence of mosquitoes, the carrier and transmitter of the disease.
Each year, action plan is devised and implemented with changes to remove the previous weaknesses and put up comprehensive strategies.
Last year, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded over 6,000 dengue cases, mostly in Charsadda district where an outbreak infected more than 1,000 persons in two union councils. Only four deaths were recorded last year in the province, down from seven in 2024.
Almost every year, health department establishes isolation wards in hospitals for affected people but the problem continues till temperature gets down to a level when mosquitoes cannot survive and cases vanish till next year when temperature becomes favourable.
However, the new action plan has categorically mentioned the responsibilities of all line departments and has directed district administration to ensure larva control measures in the respective districts.
The chief secretary, who is chairman of provincial taskforce on dengue, has notified divisional oversight committees under divisional commissioners with deputy commissioners and DHOs as their members to monitor, supervise and evaluate implementation of the action plan.
The committees have been authorised to examine, notify, if required, and recommend district operational activities plan as prepared by district dengue prevention and response unit to the provincial dengue prevention and response unit.
The chief secretary has also instructed them to make better use of resources provided by government to prevent the disease, according to a notification.
Health officials said that the new strategy was meant to reverse the trend regarding dengue cases through starting activities earlier. The province has been endemic for dengue fever for the past one decade and people experience the disease from April to November every year.
The cases of dengue fever start appearing in March and April but rise slowly in June, July, August September and October and then begin to fall in November. Officials hope that the province can drastically reduce dengue cases by implementing the action plan.
According to the plan, the government has directed relevant authorities to enlist support of religious scholars, forest department, Wapda and municipalities along with launching public awareness campaign to avoid stagnant water pools in localities and inside houses to deny breeding spots to mosquitoes.
Public awareness campaigns seek to inform people to adopt measures to stay safe from mosquitoes’ bites and don’t store water in uncovered utensils in homes.
Officials said that elimination of breeding sites of mosquitoes would not only safeguard people from dengue but also from other vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2026
