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Thursday March 28, 2024

Anti-dengue field operation to start today

IslamabadThe Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Health Department is starting field operations to avoid a possible outbreak of dengue fever today (Monday) in as many as 12 union councils, comprising rural areas of the federal capital, for which, it claimed to have finalised arrangements.According to the plan, a total of 300

By Muhammad Qasim
May 11, 2015
Islamabad
The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Health Department is starting field operations to avoid a possible outbreak of dengue fever today (Monday) in as many as 12 union councils, comprising rural areas of the federal capital, for which, it claimed to have finalised arrangements.
According to the plan, a total of 300 lady health workers would carry out activities for indoor surveillance against dengue fever in the rural areas of Islamabad, while sanitary inspectors along with their teams would carry out larvae identification and elimination campaign in outdoor areas to avoid breeding of ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that causes dengue fever.
The launch of field operations has been planned keeping in view the rising temperature and humidity that provide the most conducive environment to the ‘aedes aegypti’, the dengue mosquitoes to hatch from eggs and cause the infection, said Assistant District Health Officer ICT Dr Muhammad Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.
He said that his department has already arranged a training workshop at Rural Health Centre, Tarlai, in which all anti-dengue response teams formed by the health department have been imparted training on how to prevent dengue fever.
Dr Durrani, epidemiologist of the health department, who imparted training to the anti-dengue response teams on measures to be taken for prevention and control of dengue fever, said that during the training workshop, the field staff was shown techniques to identify different kinds of dengue mosquito and its larvae through briefing on vector morphology.
He added that to avoid a possible outbreak of dengue fever this year, the teams of health department would utilize all possible means and methods for vector control for which the health department has arranged logistics including chemicals. “Mechanical control methods, biological control methods and chemical control methods would be applied for vector control however; fumigation and Insecticide Residual Spray would be performed only in high-risk areas,” he explained.
To a query, Dr. Durrani said the health department has worked out development of a proper system for hospital-based surveillance and rapid response to avoid spread of the infection. In the training workshop, the participants have been informed of the importance of hospital-based surveillance and rapid response for control on the infection, he said.
He added the health department has made social mobilization a component of the surveillance campaign against dengue fever to create awareness among general public on how important is the elimination of possible breeding sites of mosquitoes to avoid dengue fever outbreak. The lady health workers would create awareness among housewives that they would have to protect their family members from mosquito bite to avoid the infection, said Dr. Durrani.
He added that from Monday (today), the lady health workers would start door-to-door visits in the community to look for any probable breeding sites inside homes like room coolers, old broken furniture, toys, lids, cans pitchers and saucers, flower pots, utensils and all those items that could attract rain water. The lady health workers would destroy all possible breeding sites mechanically, he explained.
He said as many as six sanitary inspectors and the same number of sanitary patrols would start work in the field in all 12 union councils from Monday (today) for outdoor surveillance of dengue vector and destruction of active breeding sites of mosquitoes. The sanitary staff would visit buildings, patwar khanas, union council offices, solid waste dumps, schools, colleges, mosques, ‘madaris’, grave-yards etc in the rural areas and look for any active sites that could later harbour dengue larvae and cause the infection, he said.
The teams would also place chemical temephos granules in the stagnant water ponds and crevices along nullahs and water streams to break the cycle of dengue vector that is its transformation from larvae to mosquito, said Dr. Durrani. He said the campaign would last till May 17 after which further plans would be devised for prevention of dengue fever.