Govt should act seriously to dengue situation: PMLN

LAHORE : The PMLN has demanded the government take dengue seriously and proposed several measures to control it.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, PMLN Punjab spokesman Azma Bukhari said the Punjab government should act seriously to the dengue situation. She alleged that billions of rupees of corona funds were embezzled by the federal and Punjab governments. Former Health Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique and Khawaja Imran Nazir were also present at the occasion. Billions of rupees were given to the Tiger Force but no facilities were provided to the common people, she said, adding “We have to fight dengue and corona ourselves, only the government has put up banners.”

Three hundred and seventy-seven patients were undergoing treatment in one day, she claimed. She said dengue patients were being shifted to corona wards as 90 percent of the beds in the hospitals were full and the relatives of the patients were forced to bring beds from their homes. At present, there are more than 4,000 dengue cases in Lahore, claimed Khawaja Salman Rafique. He said Imran Khan and Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid were responsible for dengue in Islamabad; Mahmood Khan in KP and Usman Buzdar in Punjab. Dengue epidemic has spread across the country, he said and maintained that the number of patients was increasing both in KP and Punjab. Khwaja Salman claimed that in Punjab refresher courses were not conducted for doctors as per the dengue SOPs.

He said the government increased the miseries of the citizens by imposed a condition of doctor’s description for a CBC test. “Will the patient take a prescription of Rs 1,000 to Rs3,000 from a doctor first,” he questioned.

Khawaja Imran Nazir said that under the leadership of Shahbaz Sharif, daily meetings on dengue were held in which report and progress of field work was discussed. The PMLN government eradicated dengue from Punjab. He said the incompetent government had money to buy new homes and cars but there was no money to buy medicine and kits for dengue patients. “The situation would have not been worse if surveillance was done before and after the monsoon season,” he claimed. He questioned why the government had not followed the SOPs developed in PMLN tenure and why Red Alert and Android systems were not used. The PMLN leaders concluded that the prime minister had not paid any attention to dengue and patients were increasing in KP, Islamabad and Punjab. They demanded the government take immediate action to control dengue.