PESHAWAR: The cases of dengue fever have started to decline in the province with drop in temperature, however, experts fear more infections next year if early steps are not taken for elimination of larva in hotspot union councils.

Amid decline in the number of dengue patients due to falling temperature, a report by Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response System at Directorate-General Health Services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that one person died of the illness on Monday, taking province-wide toll to 15.

It said that 223 new dengue cases were diagnosed in the province. It added that a total of 16,847 dengue cases were recorded in the province including 1,736 hospitalisations. Currently there are 1,369 active cases in the province.

Public health experts said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was endemic to dengue, which started normally in March and reached its peak till mid-October. No new cases have been recorded in Swat and Dir due to weather factor. However, Peshawar continued to register more cases, including 182 recorded during the last 24 hours, due to congestive environment and comparatively warm climate, they added.

Experts fear more infections next year if timely measures not taken

Experts said that a rain would nearly eradicate dengue virus for the current year. They said infections in the 2012 surpassed the record of 2017 when the disease killed about 70 persons and sent over 16,000 to hospitals.

“The government needs to focus on measures to lessen production of mosquitoes, the sole carrier of the disease. We need to eliminate larva and cut down the number of mosquitoes,” they said.

A doctor at a high-risk district said that people were not concerned about dengue because of its less mortality rate and little public awareness about causes of the disease. As per Dengue Action Plan (DAP), the government needs to do away with standing water and examine homes and carry out spray and fogging to dedicate larva but there is lack of trained staff for the purpose.

“Untrained staffers send us report about non-existence of larva from the field. The reports received from the entomologists and trained staff are positive. We need dedicated staff on pattern of Punjab to cope with the issue on sustainable basis,” he said.

He said that surveillance was not up to a desired level because of shortage of staff, especially women workers, to visit houses and inform females about storage of water and elimination of larva. “The lady health workers, who are deployed in vaccination and Covid-19, etc, are fatigued due to burden of work,” he added.

A physician at one of the teaching hospitals said that many people knew about the dengue fever as it occurred every year. He said that people were able to manage it without consulting doctors.

However, it also killed people at homes and such deaths went unreported, he added.

The health department wants the government to start work to reduce the cause of the disease to prevent infections reported by the province this year. It is possible through reduction in population of mosquitoes.

Officials said that more mosquitoes meant that bites would take place and infections would rise. “Once the number of the transmitters is decreased, the cases of the illness will come down,” they added.

They said that as per the Dengue Action Plan, coordination among 19 line departments was vital for eradication of larva.

The health department has identified 18 high-risk union councils, 25 medium-risk and 175 low-risk for dengue fever due to the existence of larva in houses and at community level. It needs multi-sectoral approach to eradicate the larva.

“Chief Secretary Dr Shahzad Khan Bangash, who is also the chairman of DAP, will be informed about the situation and way forward to tackle the breeding spaces and effectively prevent dengue near year,” said officials.

They said that a special grant of Rs170 million, approved by the chief secretary, enabled the health department to procure larvicides, bed nets and insecticides to control the mosquito-borne disease.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2022