Another 69 confirmed cases reported in one week in capital

Islamabad
The number of confirmed cases of dengue fever is continuously on the rise in the federal capital as in last one week; as many as 69 patients of the infection have been tested positive at Islamabad hospitals taking total number of confirmed patients to 170.
Data collected by ‘The News’ on Sunday has revealed that as many as 52 patients of dengue fever have been tested positive from Islamabad rural areas and 25 from Islamabad urban while 76 patients belonging to Rawalpindi have been tested positive at Islamabad hospitals. Also five cases have been from Mansehra, four from Haripur and one patient each from Charsadda, Mardan, Abbottabad, Fatehjang, Kotli, Kallar Syedan and Karachi.
The increase in number of cases of dengue fever has broken the record of past three years, from 2012 to 2014 though the situation cannot be termed as an outbreak at least to date as sporadic cases of the infection are being reported from the federal capital, said Assistant District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.
He added the health department is on its toes to control spread of dengue fever and has already started taking measures as has been directed by the Chief Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Islamabad.
He said a total of four union councils in rural area of the federal capital including Bhara Kahu, Tarlai, Rawat and Sohan have been declared as high-risk UCs and control measures are being taken there on regular basis.
He said last week Deputy Commissioner chaired a meeting to review the threat posed by the situation and plan to prevent, and contain the disease and mitigate its effects that was attended by all the stakeholders from the Health Department ICT, Director Administration CDA, representatives from all public and private sector major hospitals operating in Islamabad, CDA Health Directorate and officers of Islamabad administration and the local government staff.
He said in the meeting, the deputy commissioner showed great concern on delay in response on positive cases being reported from the hospitals and directed all the stakeholders from the public and private sector hospitals to specifically allocate extra beds in their establishments and ensure providing best clinical case management services to the patients seeking dengue fever treatment.
Dr. Durrani said the deputy commissioner has explained that refusal of treatment or a patient’s referral to another hospital without technical solid reason will not be tolerated at all and asked hospital authorities to share timely and correctly the patient’s complete address and data with the health department enabling it to offer a timely response.
As per directives of the high-ups, the ICT Health Department is working hard to control spread of dengue fever and the officers of Islamabad administration are personally monitoring the field activities of every case response at a personal level bringing and mobilizing all available resources from all departments serving under Islamabad administration, he said while responding to a query.
He added all lady health supervisors have been assigned duties to monitor activities in the field and report promptly any dengue fever case and strengthen social mobilization and indoor surveillance activity against dengue fever.
As per directives of the deputy commissioner, the health department has started a campaign of fumigation and Insecticide Residual Spray in all the four high-risk UCs from where majority of cases have been reported, he said.
To a query, Dr. Durrani said the house of a confirmed patient is being sprayed with Insecticide Residual Spray with complete coating of the walls inside the home along with 12 houses on each side of it while the streets, roads and open areas in the affected area are being fumigated.