close
Thursday March 28, 2024

KP govt has resources to curb dengue: minister

By Mushtaq Yusufzai
August 20, 2017

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government finally came out of its deep slumber and started holding emergency meetings by involving all the stakeholders to better handle the epidemic of dengue virus in the provincial capital and its suburbs.

Dengue has claimed five lives and infected more than 4,000 people so far, government officials said.

The government at the same meeting stopped authorities of all the public sector hospitals in the provincial capital from sharing any information about dengue and its victims with the print and electronic media.

The government has authorised the deputy commissioner of Peshawar to release information to the media about the issue. Provincial Health Minister Shahram Tarakai chaired the meeting.

Heads of tertiary care hospitals, including Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), senior officials of Health Department, District Nazim Muhammad Asim Khan and local PTI MPAs were also present at the meeting.

The health minister criticised Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz provincial president Amir Muqam for allegedly using health issues such as dengue epidemic for political point-scoring.

He said Amir Muqam instead of criticising them should ensure uninterrupted power supply to the people of KP, and particularly the residents of Tehkal locality in Peshawar where he said people had been facing 20 hours power loadshedding.

“If the federal government stopped power loadshedding in KP and particularly in Peshawar, the residents of Tehkal will get good sleep in nets in open air and will remain safe from mosquitoes,” the minister said. 

Shahram Tarakai advised the media particularly TV channels to refrain from creating unrest among the masses by sensational reporting of outbreak of dengue virus in the province.

The health minister said the KP government had all the resources to cope with the situation after outbreak of dengue and it would definitely seek assistance from the federal as well as Punjab government if needed.

It was decided that only the deputy commissioner’s office would release information about dengue, its victims as well as efforts of the provincial government to the media. 

District Nazim Muhammad Asim said that officials of the three tertiary care hospitals as well as other quarters concerned would come with complete details and information of the day long activities to a meeting supposed to be held every day at 4pm at the control room set up in DC office.

“The situation is not that much alarming but there used to be a communication gap. Now we have bridged that gap and media will be provided authentic information,” the district nazim said.

He said the provincial government on Saturday released them Rs10 million on emergency basis for purchase of drugs such as larvicides, pesticides and some mosquito repellant lotion to be distributed free of cost among the poor residents of five union councils.

The nazim said they had already provided Rs1 million to the district health officer and released Rs5 million for procurement of drugs and other necessary items to eradicate dengue virus.

“Since the problem exists in five union councils of the city, therefore we made a plan to target these areas. We mobilized 2000 lady health workers and other staff for door-to-door campaign as people mostly needed awareness rather than drugs to avoid this disease,” said the nazim. He said the provincial government had pledged to provide them Rs300 million as additional funds if the situation didn’t come under control.

Meanwhile, patients continued to visit different hospitals with symptoms close to dengue fever.

According to sources, dozens of patients were taken to the Khyber Teaching Hospital and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). So far, 150 patients have been diagnosed with dengue virus were under treatment in KTH and eight in HMC.

Officials said that besides Tehkal, patients from other areas such as Mohallah Gujran Charanda, Mohallah Daudzai, Tehkal Payan, Pishtakhara, Bala Kanday, Chato Pump, and Warsak Road in Peshawar were also taken to the KTH and were diagnosed with dengue virus.

Since July, the KTH received administration 3980 patients with symptoms similar to dengue fever and 614 of them were diagnosed with dengue virus.