Punjab gears up for dengue control activities

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education Khawaja Salman Rafique has directed the officers of the departments concerned to ensure participation in the meetings of Town Emergency Response Committees (TERC) for ensuring effective measures to check dengue.

He directed the officers of Agriculture, Transport, Social Welfare, Local Govt and Auqaf departments to improve their performance with regard to dengue control activities.He issued these instructions while chairing a meeting of cabinet committee on dengue at civil secretariat on Monday, according to a handout.

Additional Director General Dengue Control Programme Dr Farukh Sultan briefed the meeting about dengue situation and measures taken for its control. He informed that during the present dengue season, so far ten confirmed dengue patients have been reported in Punjab out of which three patients were from Lahore. He informed that sufficient stocks of insecticides used in fogging and spray are available with the department and more chemicals are being procured for which national and international tenders have already been floated.

Salman Rafique directed the finance department to complete the process for releasing funds on urgent basis for the recruitment of new dengue staff. The meeting was informed that Dengue Experts Advisory Group has completed case management training of doctors and nurses. The minister directed that departments concerned should be more vigilant in those districts from where dengue larva is being detected as a result of effective indoor and outdoor dengue surveillance. He directed that dengue surveillance should be made more effective in such districts from where either dengue larva is not reported or detected in less quantity.

Khawaja Salman directed all the departments to continue their anti-dengue activities and concentrate on the surveillance of graveyard, junk yards and construction sites to check the dengue breeding. He directed that special attention should be paid on the adjoining areas of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and a joint strategy should be implemented for dengue control with collaboration of authorities of the federal capital.