Plan to avoid dengue

Islamabad

The district health departments in the region including Islamabad Capital Territory Health Department and district health department Rawalpindi are planning to launch a special surveillance campaign for identification and elimination of larvae of mosquito ‘aedes aegypti’, the vector that cause dengue fever possibly from next week.

The ICT health department would launch a door-to-door surveillance campaign against dengue fever in rural areas of the federal capital most probably from third week of February, said Additional District Health Officer at ICT Health Department Dr. Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Sunday.

He said he attended a meeting held in this regard at the Commissioner’s Office Rawalpindi on Saturday. “At the moment, we are finalizing plan of action to be followed to avoid dengue fever outbreak in 2016 and the first step for the purpose is to prevent breeding of larvae of ‘aedes aegypti’ and ‘aedes albopictus’, the dengue fever vectors.”

He said the ICT health department has already started purchasing chemicals and insecticides to be used for prevention of breeding of mosquitoes’ larvae. The health department is arranging a training session for the available staff on steps that would be taken during the up-coming surveillance campaign.