ICT Health Department carrying out activities to avoid dengue fever outbreak

Dengue fever vector found in abundance but no case reported so far

Islamabad

Dengue fever vector, mosquito ‘aedes aegypti’ and its larvae has been found in abundance in the environment of federal capital however not a single case of dengue fever has so far been reported from Islamabad.

The health department Islamabad Capital Territory has been carrying out field activities under larvae identification and elimination campaign along with surveillance campaign against dengue fever to avoid a possible outbreak of the infection.

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 over 5300 hotspots, possible breeding sites for mosquitoes in rural areas of the federal capital and all these points are being visited by sanitary inspectors and patrols on regular basis for treatment and management.

Additional District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani expressed this while talking to ‘The News’ on Tuesday. He added 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, he said.

He added that anti-mosquito spray and fumigation drive is continued in the rural areas of Islamabad successfully 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 temiphos to avoid breeding of dengue fever vector, he said.

He said the teams of sanitary inspectors and lady health workers are also creating awareness among public in rural areas for adopting simple measures to prevent themselves from the infection and stress for finding out active breeding sites of mosquito in the vicinity and eliminating them.

He added the main focus of the drive is to mobilize community through public health education campaign at public places about preventive measures against 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.

He said apart from larvae identification and elimination campaign, the health department has strengthened hospital based surveillance in ICT under which data is being collected from private and public sector healthcare facilities on regular basis.

To a query, Dr. Durrani said the dengue fever vector is found in abundance in the federal capital however not a single case of dengue fever has so far been reported from any part of Islamabad.