Plan being finalised to avoid dengue fever outbreak in the region

ICT Health Department to launch surveillance campaign from next week

Islamabad

The district health departments in the region including Islamabad Capital Territory Health Department and district health department Rawalpindi are planning to launch a special surveillance campaign for identification and elimination of larvae of mosquito ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that cause dengue fever possibly from next week.

The ICT health department would launch a door-to-door surveillance campaign against dengue fever in rural areas of the federal capital most probably from third week of February, said Additional District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.

He said he attended a meeting held in this regard at the Commissioner’s Office Rawalpindi on Saturday. “At the moment, we are finalizing plan of action to be followed to avoid dengue fever outbreak in 2016 and the first step for the purpose is to prevent breeding of larvae of ‘aedes aegypti’ and ‘aedes albopictus’, the dengue fever vectors.”

He said the ICT health department has already started purchasing chemicals and insecticides to be used for prevention of breeding of mosquitoes’ larvae. The health department is arranging a training session for the available staff on steps that would be taken during the up-coming surveillance campaign against dengue fever, he said.

He added the recruitment of additional staff including epidemiologist, sanitary patrols and sanitary workers is in progress and the additional field staff would be available to the health department most probably from next month.

During the surveillance campaign, he said the teams of district health department would eliminate possible breeding sites of mosquitoes’ larvae along with treating ponds of stagnant water that cannot be removed.

It is important that the population in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi faced the most severe outbreak of dengue fever last year. it is worth mention that within next few weeks, the temperature in this region of the country would go up and the climate would become highly suitable for breeding of mosquitoes.

Dr. Durrani said so far, larvae of ‘aedes aegypti’ and ‘aedes albopictus’ have not been found from anywhere in the region mainly because of low temperature, however, it is time for planning a comprehensive strategy to avoid a possible outbreak of dengue fever in 2016.

He added the ICT health department has listed as many as eight union councils as high-risk areas particularly those adjoining Rawalpindi district. The high-risk UCs include Rawat, Sihala, Sohan, Tumair, Barakahu, Phulgran, Tarnol and Shah Allah Ditta, he said.

Dr. Durrani said that as many as eight teams comprising sanitary inspectors, malaria inspectors and malaria supervisors would be placed in high-risk areas for outdoor surveillance campaign while 13 lady health
supervisors are being placed in the field for monitoring
indoor surveillance against dengue fever.