Strong surveillance needed

Islamabad
To control spread of dengue fever in the region, there is a need to strengthen surveillance against the infection along with strong monitoring of the activities being carried out by case response teams in the field.
The district health departments both in the federal capital and Rawalpindi are giving due attention to case response activities in the areas from where cases are being reported though the spread of the infection could not be checked so far particularly in Rawalpindi that has been badly hit by a severe outbreak of the infection.
According to health experts, strong monitoring of working of case response teams along with sensitising population on control measures may yield better results.
Islamabad Capital Territory Health Department is continuously working on improving performance of case response teams in the field along with strengthening surveillance against dengue fever, said Assistant District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday.
He said to date, a total of 101 positive cases of the infection have been reported in a total of 11 hospitals in the federal capital of which only 43 are residents of Islamabad while 49 are from Rawalpindi and the data shows that the situation is well under control in Islamabad.
It is worth mentioning here that nearly 1,000 positive cases of dengue fever have already been reported at the three teaching hospitals in Rawalpindi and the number is continuously on the rise.
To a query, Dr. Durrani said the health departments in the region must ensure proper case response activities in the field to check spread of the infection and of course, strong monitoring is needed for the purpose.
Giving details, he said a total of six sanitary inspectors along with six sanitary patrols are working in rural areas of the federal capital for outdoor surveillance while one lady health worker has been assigned task of clearing at least 200 houses. Over 300 LHWs are carrying out door-to-door surveillance activities under supervision of 12 lady health supervisors, he said.
The health department is monitoring situation of patients in Islamabad hospitals on regular basis and is directly monitoring case response activities in the areas from where confirmed patients of the infection have been reported.
The ICT rapid response teams have been performing fumigation and insecticidal residual spray in the areas from where confirmed cases have been reported, said Dr. Durrani. He explained that fogging is being done in the area of residence of a patient and IRS inside the patient’s house and 20 houses on each side of his residence.