DHA starts working on dengue fever surveillance

Rawalpindi:The teams of District Health Authority (DHA) Rawalpindi have started working in the field for both indoor and outdoor surveillance against dengue fever after a little rise in temperature in this region of the country.

The district health authority has set a target of controlling the population of larvae of mosquito ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that causes dengue fever to avoid a possible outbreak of the infection in summer, said Chief Executive Officer DHA Rawalpindi Dr. Asif Arbab Khan Niazi while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.

He added the teams of the health department have started carrying out activities in the field for dengue fever surveillance, the identification and elimination of larvae of ‘aedes’ mosquitoes. The health department has directed the teams in the field to create awareness among the public on preventive measures particularly to avoid breeding of larvae of mosquitoes inside their houses and outside around them.

It is important that control measures of ‘aedes’ larvae is important as epidemiologically, the cases of dengue fever increase proportionally with the larval density. It has been observed during the past 16 years or so that huge larval density of mosquitoes ‘aedes aegypti’ in a region causes heavy influx of confirmed cases of dengue fever during monsoon and summer.

To a query, Dr. Asif said the teams have also been directed to work for removal of potential breeding sites of dengue fever vector inside homes and from outdoor hotspots. We have already listed hotspots in the district and have started working on checking growth of aedes larvae on the hotspots, he said. He added a total of over 18000 hotspots have been registered in the district.

He said that in the 20 high-risk union councils of the district from where the maximum number of dengue fever cases was reported last year, the teams have started carrying out door-to-door surveillance activities on a regular basis.

As many as 1300 sanitary patrols are available to the health department while the government has approved induction of another 1000 sanitary patrols for surveillance campaigns against dengue fever in the district for the year 2025, said the CEO DHA while responding to a query.

He added another 200 staff members would be arranged from within the health department for the field activities while Rawalpindi Waste Management Authority has pledged to provide services of as many as 500 workers to the health department. Hopefully, before the advent of summer season, the health department would deploy over 3000 workers in the field to avoid a possible outbreak of dengue fever this year.