LAHORE, Feb 29: Special Assistant (health) to Chief Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique has said the Punjab government will make its system more effective in eradicating the dengue virus in the light of recommendations and guidelines of medical experts of the three-day dengue conference.

Addressing the concluding session of the international conference organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Punjab government, Mr Rafique said that recommendations would help in making its vector surveillance, disease surveillance, data collection and patient management system more effective.

He said the conference provided an opportunity to local medical experts to update themselves and learn from the knowledge and experiences of international experts.

Special attention should be paid to vector surveillance and monitoring of all districts, particularly the 11 districts, affected by dengue last year, he said. Health secretary Capt Arif Nadeem (retired) presented proposed recommendations in which he focused on institutionalizing of dengue control efforts in all endemic districts by establishing a sustainable dengue control units, strengthening surveillance at all levels (human resource, integration of HIS and DEWS), establishment of an operational outbreak emergency response plan, training and development plan for care providers, field entomologists and social mobilisers.

He also emphasized to encourage the local industry in manufacturing of drugs in the management of dengue/DHF and to launch a system for analyzing and validation of technical and expert reports.

On behalf of the provincial government, he thanked the WHO for holding the international conference in Lahore.

WHO representative Dr Guido Sabatinelli said the WHO organized the conference and invited experts from all over the world to share international experience in controlling the dengue in Pakistan.

He said that unfortunately Pakistan had faced the worst attack of dengue fever last year because nobody was prepared for this disease.

The WHO would continue to help Pakistan to combat the dengue fever this year and in the future as well, he said.

Dr Sabatinelli gave shields to various guests and valuable participants at the end of the conference.

Senior officers of health departments of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Fata also addressed and said that they got an opportunity to learn a lot from the international conference.

They expressed their hope that the Punjab government would make future strategies for the eradication of dengue in the light of recommendations formulated in the conference.

Earlier, representative of WHO Dr Hasan-ul-Bashara also spoke on the occasion.