ISLAMABAD: Within the last about 24 hours, 138 dengue patients were admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) and three government hospitals in Rawalpindi.

With the new arrival of 70 dengue patients, the total number of positive cases reported to Pims since Aug 1 reached 200.

Moreover, 68 dengue patients arrived in three government hospitals of Rawalpindi, raising the number of hospitalised dengue patients to 202. Officials said the condition of 16 of the patients was critical.

Pims’ media coordinator Dr Waseem Khawaja told Dawn that initially just a few confirmed cases were reported in the hospital but on Monday 70 cases were reported positive.

“It shows that the number of cases may further increase in coming days. We have established isolation wards for the patients,” he said.

With 70 new patients, number of positive dengue cases reported to Pims since Aug 1 has reached 200, official says

Replying a question, Dr Khawaja said since Aug 1 as many as 400 suspected dengue patients visited Pims out of whom 200 were tested positive.

He said it was not confirmed how many of these patients were residents of Islamabad.

A senior official of the district administration in Rawalpindi said 202 dengue patients were admitted to the hospitals, including 47 from Islamabad. He said the patients were being provided free of cost medication and a large number of them had been discharged.

The district administration has divided the city and cantonment areas into three sectors.

Deputy Commissioner Ali Randhawa appointed three additional DCs to monitor the anti-dengue drive in Rawal Town, Potohar Town and cantonment areas. They will monitor attendance of the officials in their respective areas and quality of fogging and dengue surveillance.

All teams have been equipped with necessary kits, sprays and medicine. The teams will work from 8am to 4pm daily and submit reports to their incharges. The incharges would further submit reports of their respective additional deputy commissioners at 7pm on a regular basis.

To meet the shortage of staff, the district administration has requested the provincial government to allow it to recruit 500 people and hire 100 fogging machines.

The official said the number of dengue patients was increasing so efforts had been launched in all the union councils of the city and cantonment areas.

“At present 1,500 sanitary patrols are working in different areas. Recently, the health authority recruited 500 sanitary patrols to work in dengue virus affected areas. However, there is a need for more staff to carry out the campaign.”

He said the health authority had more than 130 fogging machines to carry out fumigation. However, there is a need for 100 more fogging machines to cover all the union councils.

“During the last 24 hours, 68 dengue patients arrived in the government hospitals,” he said.

When contacted, the deputy commissioner said the administration was working day and night to control the dengue virus and due to its efforts the number of cases had reduced.

He said most of the patients had been discharged from hospitals. However, he said there was no dengue related death reported from any of the three government hospitals.

The DC said a third-party evaluation of the anti-dengue drive had been launched in the city and cantonment areas. The district administration has also started a campaign to inform the residents about safety measures to avoid dengue fever, he added.

PML-N concerned over rising cases

The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) said the government should have followed the policy of former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif to eradicate the disease.

“Due to incompetence of the government, the number of dengue cases in Punjab has reached 683. Today, people of Punjab are remembering Mr Sharif as he was the best administrator,” said PML-N spokesperson Marryium Aurangzeb in a statement.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2019