Islamabad : Expected heavy rainfalls during pre-monsoon and monsoon in this region of the country may pose serious health threats, particularly in a situation when an unusual rising number of cases of different seasonal communicable diseases are already being reported from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Heavy rainfalls may contaminate water reservoirs and rapidly cause the spread of communicable diseases leading to increased flood-related morbidity and mortality affecting the communities living in congested urban areas. There is a much higher risk of fast spread of diseases like typhoid, cholera, acute jaundice due to hepatitis A, hepatitis E, amoebic dysentery, acute respiratory tract infections, injuries leading to tetanus due to contaminated wounds and other infections along with a greater number of cases of snake bites, scabies, skin infections, rabies due to dog bites, malaria and most importantly the dengue fever since the standing-water after heavy rainfall can create new mosquito breeding sites.
Water accumulation can result in an increase in the vector population enhancing the potential for disease transmission, depending on the local mosquito vector species and its preferred habitat. Since malaria and dengue mosquitoes are endemic in the area, the risk of transmission of the diseases is always higher in the present high transmission season.
Epidemiologist Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani who is Member of Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network (GOARN) expressed this while talking to ‘The News’ about the serious health threats, the rains, and rising humidity may pose in the coming days.
He said during monsoon, the temperature and humidity provide the most favourable and conducive environment to mosquitoes for growth and reproduction. The situation at the moment calls for action to minimize illnesses and deaths due to rains and floods among the poor communities, he said.
He explains that in view of the geographical location and land characteristics of District Islamabad, most of the area of the district is generally protected from floods. Due to natural terrain and topography, the rain/flood water is disposed of through nullahs and natural slopes. However, the portion of a few villages, katchi abadis, and congested areas in the adjoining city of Rawalpindi remain at higher risk of floods, he said.
He said in the case of the extensive and continuous rains in the catchment areas of Simly and Rawal dams, the excess water which overflows from the spillways of the dams causes flooding in the rivers Soan and Korang. Thus high floods in these rivers may affect the low-lying areas and disrupt services like water supply, sewerage, power supply, communication, and agriculture system, he said. He said measures should be taken well in time keeping in view the history of flooding in the region. Islamabad district had experienced heavy rain falls causing high magnitude floods during 1992, 1997, and 2001 as a consequence of which a huge proportion of the population in the twin cities got affected badly.
Dr. Durrani said it is the right time for the health departments to mobilize all resources and make efforts in an integrated manner in collaboration with other departments to combat any emergency situation arising due to heavy rainfalls and incidences of communicable disease.
The establishment of the control room and constitution of outreach rapid response teams in high-risk low-lying areas are the basic steps to plan activities along with stock piling of medicines, ORS and anti-septic dressings, he said.