PESHAWAR: Health department has planned to distribute insecticide treated bed nets to all people in Lower Dir, Buner and merged districts to prevent outbreak of malaria and dengue fever.

“We are distributing free of cost insecticide treated bed nets in Lower Dir, Buner and merged districts as these areas had recorded more malaria and dengue cases last year,” Dr Irshad Roghani, the director of public health at director-general health services offices, told Dawn.

He said that the nets would be distributed among people with the assistance of Global Fund to prevent the occurrence of vector-borne ailments in those areas. He said that so far 16 cases of dengue were recorded that were less than 30 patients reported in 2023.

Dr Irshad said that among the infected patients, eight were in age group of 21-30 years, five in 31-40 and one each in 11-20, 41-50 and 51- 60 age groups. He said that government had already approved Dengue Action Plan 2024 under which activities were in progress throughout the province.

Global Fund is assisting health dept in the initiative

He said that the department had been focusing on identification and destruction of larvae with the help of malaria staff and lady health workers. “Additionally, we are visiting the construction sites, tyre shops and automobile workshops to scale up awareness among people regarding breeding of mosquitoes,” he added.

Dr Irshad said that each year number of cases was getting down as people had come to know the causative agents of dengue fever and started preventive measures in their localities.

In 2017, the province witnessed the worst outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease as 25,000 dengue cases were recorded with 70 deaths after which the situation remained under control except for 2022 during which 18 mortalities were recorded, he said. He added that last year, the number of infections in the province was 747, the lowest cases recorded by any province in the country.

Dr Irshad said that their staff was working throughout the province with main focus on high-risk districts of Mardan, Khyber, Peshawar, Nowshera and Haripur because those were endemic and cases were regularly reported from there but other districts were also covered as per plan.

“We have further strengthened surveillance to ensure that suspected cases are tested and preventive measures get under way,” he said. He added that all the 36 districts had been instructed to send samples from symptomatic patients to Public Health Reference Laboratory (PHRL) at Khyber Medical University for confirmation.

The public health director said that they brought down dengue cases through use of scientific approach as they deployed 41 entomologists, who helped health department in identification and destruction of mosquito larvae and strengthening surveillance. “As a result cases have declined over the past one year,” he added.

Dr Irshad said that a fortnight ago, the government approved Rs145 million to implement the plan due to which they not only expedited surveillance but also made arrangements in hospitals for management of infected people.

However, he said that people were required to eliminate stagnant water pools to deny breeding spots to mosquitoes, the carrier and transmitter of the virus. “We have planned to continue the activities and ensure that fewer cases appear next year and gradually, the infection is totally disappeared,” he added.

Dr Irshad said that use of bed nets in high-risk districts was recommended so that people could avoid mosquito bites and stay safe from the ailment.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2024