‘All out efforts underway to contain dengue fever’

Islamabad : All hospitals are fully geared towards management of dengue fever cases. Free diagnosis and treatment will be given to all patients and admission will not be refused to a single confirmed patient. Dengue fever patients brought from a village contiguous to Rawalpindi have been treated in Holy Family and Benazir Bhutto Hospital and 90 per cent have been discharged. There has so far been no fatality from the illness in Islamabad.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr. Zafar Mirza made these observations her Friday while assuring that his Ministry is leading all out efforts to prevent and contain the Dengue virus in the federal capital.

A hospital-based surveillance system is in place; as soon as a patient is confirmed for dengue fever, the Dengue Control Cell gets his/her patient profile information from the Dengue dashboard. A Rapid Response Team is immediately sent to the affected area to contain further spread by spraying and fogging in and around the patient’s home and 48 houses around it with an aim to kill the adult virus laden mosquitoes. Rapid Response Teams are working since the last two months, Dr. Zafar shared.

The Dengue Control Cell is working round the clock and is in continuous liaison with all concerned departments, public and private hospitals, civic bodies, DMA and MCI. The Islamabad Administration is also regularly holding meetings to review the situation and take measures as required.

An aggressive preventive campaign is underway; this includes identifying and destroying mosquito breeding sites, covering open drinking containers, removal of tyres, shoppers, plastic bottles and other waste from rooftop, draining water from room coolers and trays of refrigerators. Special teams of sanitary inspectors, malaria supervisors and lady health workers are in the field for the purpose.

Additionally, a social mobilization campaign has been launched through Lady Health Workers to create awareness amongst local communities to on prevention against dengue and eliminating dengue vector breeding sites inside and around their homes.

Dr. Zafar said highest level of vigilance is being maintained and called upon people to adopt preventive measures by maintaining cleanliness in and around their homes and eliminating breeding sites.