Authorities urged to take measures to contain dengue

BARA: Office-bearers of the Doctor Practitioners and Chemists Welfare Association, Bara have said that the Khyber Health Department and the local administration should start an anti-dengue campaign on an emergency basis to control dengue virus.

Speaking at a press conference here, the office-bearers including president Dr Rahim Jan Afridi and others said that the disease caused by dengue mosquito bites was a deadly one, but they could get rid of the virus through preventive measures.

They said that symptoms of the disease were severe fever, headache, and the patient’s eyes becoming red, while the use of mosquito nets and anti-mosquito sprays could be used as preventive measures.

“Dengue mosquito often appears at sunset and sunrise, while its breeding is in clean water and water containers,” said Dr Rahim Jan Afridi

He said it was very important to always cover water containers in homes. About dengue virus, he said the disease appeared for the first time in 1996 in Khyber district, but at that time, the health department took many measures to contain it.

“But this year, neither the health department has conducted fumigation nor the local administration has prepared any action plan to contain dengue,” he added

Dr Rahim Jan said that dozens of dengue cases were being reported to private clinics in Bara on a daily basis.

He maintained that if the local administration and the health department had started a timely dengue spray or public awareness campaign to prevent dengue, it would not have spread so fast today.