Dr Yasmin appeals for vigilance amid rise in dengue cases

LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid has warned of the increasing number of dengue cases and appealed to people to remain vigilant about dengue breeding sites in their surroundings.

Addressing a press briefing at Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Hospital, the Health Minister said that although dengue has been behind the epidemic so far, yet there is a need for extreme vigilance and caution. Besides civil administration, the government department and every citizen will have to ensure the elimination of dengue larva.

Present on the occasion were Vice-Chancellor Rawalpindi Medical University Dr Omar and other officials. The Health Minister said that in allied hospitals of Rawalpindi, currently 49 patients were under treatment and six new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. She said the dengue outbreak emerged in 2019 in Rawalpindi and the government had since then been planning to make sure that such a situation does not arise again.

The Health Minister said, “In the current year, 15 meetings at the provincial level on dengue control have been held and the government has been constantly reviewing the situation. We are making efforts for polio eradication and due to successful campaigns, no polio cases have been reported this year. Even our environmental samples have been found negative recently. Only Pakistan and Afghanistan are the remaining two countries having Polio cases. If Pakistan does not report any polio case for three consecutive years, it will be declared polio-free as well.”

Elaborating on the Corona situation, the Health Minister said that the fourth wave of the pandemic was on the decline as Punjab had reported 880 cases in the last 24 hours. After a recent increase, the number of beds reserved for Covid-19 had reached 50%. More than 400,000 people were being vaccinated on daily basis. So far more than 50 million have been vaccinated in the province. We have set a target of vaccination of at least 70 per cent population by the end of the current year.”

The Health Minister said that 29.3 families of the province shall be provided health cards by the end of the current year and only NADRA registered families shall avail of this facility. To a question, Dr Yasmin Rashid responded that 33 departments were engaged in dengue surveillance and third-party audit for their performance was regularly conducted and private labs have been informed to report cases. To another question, the Health Minister said that DG Khan Institute of Cardiology, Mianwali Mother and Child Hospital and Nishtar-II Multan were going to be functional soon.