Peshawar district ready to handle dengue cases: Nazim

PESHAWAR: District Nazim Muhammad Asim Khan said on Monday the district and provincial governments were prepared to handle dengue cases.

He told The News that the government had conducted door-to-door dengue control activities in all high risk areas. "The hospitals are prepared for handling dengue cases. The programme is being run on the polio mapping," he added.

Asim Khan said dengue was not related to a specific district. "The issue is a provincial and a single district is not responsible for its control," he said. He said former chief minister Pervez Khattak had established the Dengue Control Centre after the first dengue case emerged at the provincial level.

"The major partner in the dengue control is the Health Department while districts governments are assisting the department," he added. Stressing the need for cleanliness inside homes, he said the cause of dengue was not outside homes. "The people don't have continuous water supply and they store water in drums. The provision of clean water to people would stop them from storing water that would control dengue," he remarked.

The district government took extensive steps for dengue eradication in 2015 by running a massive programme. The PPHI, WSSP and district government distributed responsibilities, he added.

The nazim, however, said proper steps were not taken the following year due to various reasons and the dengue resurfaced again. "The district government provided grants to the Health Department when the cases were reported in Peshawar, he claimed.

"We did not relax after that crisis and continued our efforts for eradication of dengue from Peshawar," he said. "Entomologists visit homes in the high risk zones and check the dengue larva. Capacity building training of health staff has been conducted," Asim Khan added.