ICT Health Department starts vigorous drive to avoid dengue outbreak

Islamabad: The health department Islamabad Capital Territory has started a vigorous campaign to avoid a possible dengue fever outbreak this year by deploying well over 500 workers for field activities.

The teams of District Health Office Islamabad along with workers from district allied departments including district administration, auqaf and education departments have started carrying out field activities under larvae identification and elimination campaign along with surveillance and awareness campaign against dengue fever.

The teams have been carrying out around 11,000 visits per day as the district health office has assigned the task of 80 visits per day to every team working in the field, said District Health Officer Islamabad Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.

He added the teams have also been working for larvae identification and their elimination on hot spots. The teams have been paying door-to-door visits as well for creating awareness among masses on how to avoid a possible outbreak of dengue fever.

In a message to public, he said the threat of dengue fever outbreak is looming large and we need to ensure there are no water pools and uncovered water containers at home. He said the help from individuals is crucial to save everyone from dengue fever.

It is important that the dengue fever vector, mosquito ‘aedes aegypti’ and its larvae has been found in abundance in the environment in this region of the country however only one dengue fever case has so far been reported from Islamabad and that too one-and-a-half months back.

The teams of ICT health department comprising lady health workers are carrying out door-to-door larvae identification and elimination campaign along with educating masses on how to avoid breeding of larvae of dengue fever vector inside houses.

The teams of ICT health department have listed hotspots, the possible breeding sites for mosquitoes in the federal capital and all these points are being visited by the teams on regular basis for treatment and management. It is important that the listed hotspots include graveyards, junkyards, obsolete buildings, under construction buildings, local restaurants and hotels along roads and nurseries.

The teams of health department have also been visiting tyre shops on regular basis for larvae identification and elimination while the owners of shops are being educated on steps necessary to avoid breeding of dengue fever vector.

Dr. Zaeem said as part of preventive measures against dengue fever, the unnecessary water accumulations at hot spots are being removed and if it is not possible, the hot spots are being treated with chemical to avoid breeding of dengue fever vector.

He added the main focus of the drive is to mobilise community through public health education campaign at public places about preventive measures needed to avoid dengue fever. During door-to-door campaign, the LHWs are stressing the need of clean environment from solid waste that would become a main risk factor during rains and may cause spread of dengue fever along with a number of other seasonal infections in the community.