Surveillance, awareness drive against dengue fever launched

Rawalpindi
The teams of district health department have been carrying out surveillance and awareness campaign against dengue fever in all seven tehsils of the district, along with Rawal Town and Potohar Town, however, larvae of ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that causes dengue fever, have not been found anywhere in the district so far.
To avoid dengue fever outbreak this year, the district health department claimed to have launched larvae identification and elimination campaign well in time and during the campaign, the teams of district health department are distributing pamphlets and handbills among residents on how to avoid breeding of mosquitoes inside homes.
The existing weather conditions are not suitable for breeding of ‘aedes aegypti’, however, to avoid any risk, the health department has started carrying out activities according to micro plans prepared for all seven tehsils of the district, Potohar Town, Rawal Town and areas falling under jurisdiction of cantonment boards to avoid a possible outbreak of dengue fever this year, said District Health Officer Dr. Rafiq Ahmed while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.
He explained that the teams of health department are also enlisting points throughout district which serve as possible breeding sites for the vector due to unnecessary accumulation of water. The unnecessary water reservoirs that cannot be eliminated would be treated with chemicals to make them unable to serve as breeding points for mosquitoes, he said.
He said the health department has already imparted training through refresher courses to almost all its staff including doctors on preventive measures needed to avoid a possible outbreak of the infection.
It is important that the population in Rawalpindi district has been facing severe outbreaks of dengue fever for the last two years and from July to November; the three allied hospitals in town had to screen hundreds of patients daily for the infection in 2013 and 2014.
To a query, Dr. Rafiq said the activities under surveillance campaign against dengue fever are being carried out in all seven tehsils of the district including Taxila, Murree, Gujar Khan, Kallar Syedan, Kotli Satyan, Kahuta and Rawalpindi along with Rawal Town, Potohar Town and areas falling under jurisdiction of cantonment boards.
To a query, the DHO said the district health department has arranged Temephos Granules and Deltamethrin solution for sprinkling on unnecessary water accumulations however sprinkling of chemicals would be done only on reservoirs from where the larvae of ‘aedes aegypti’ would be found.
He added that the teams of health department who are carrying out surveillance activities have also been given task of sensitizing public on importance of preventive measures that should be taken to avoid dengue fever in future.