Dengue season

Every year, at the start of winter season, dengue becomes prevalent in Pakistan. Every year the authorities have to wrestle with the outbreak of the disease. Sadly, we tend to only take preventative measures when the number of cases reaches a crisis level and not on a pre-emptive basis. The health authorities need to devise a coordinated plan in advance to nip the disease in the bud.

Proper awareness programmes must be initiated prior to winter and isolation wards at hospitals must be created before the outbreak of the disease. The capacity of local hospitals must also be upgraded to deal with the dengue patients as major hospitals in cities are flooded with dengue patients during peak dengue season.

M Sayyad Alam Khan

Peshawar