PESHAWAR: Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever continues to infect people despite drop in temperature with most cases being recorded in the districts that were previously recording fewer patients.

During the current month, Peshawar, which has recorded 1,242 patients of the overall tally of 3,622 in the ongoing year so far, has confirmed 85 cases. According to experts, it is not surprising as the province’s biggest city has always been epicentre of the mosquito-borne ailment. However, they said that rise in cases in other cities should cause alarm among the people supposed to apply brakes on the virus.

Experts said that Lakki Marwat, where the disease affected 42 persons in October, infected 62 people during the ongoing month. They said that the ailment was likely to affect more people as the authorities concerned have been trying to strengthen surveillance and anti-dengue efforts in the districts where the disease is not a major issue.

Other districts of concern are Mardan, Haripur, Swabi and Karak where the infection was spreading fast compared to last month. In the past 12 days, the department has diagnosed positive 338 cases reflecting the disease is still far from over despite slump in temperature.

Experts call for coordinated and joint efforts by line departments

According to report prepared by the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response System (IDSRS) of the health department, the vector-borne sickness was confirmed in 45 persons in the last 24 hours and none of them was hospitalised. Presently, 28 people were in hospitals due to the disease whereas tally of active cases was 161. It said that 3458 have been recovered and released from isolation and total hospitalisation from Dengue this year was 499.

It said that only three persons have passed away from dengue this year so far.

However, physicians in the hospitals and private medical practitioners fear that the disease is still around and continues to infect people, who are not recorded. Doctors at hospitals told this scribe that they received more patients with temperature and many of them were tested positive for dengue.

They said that most patients were coming to private clinics in Tehkal, Nasir Bagh Road, Sufaid Dheri, Badhabher, Matani and Danishabad localities of Peshawar as those areas had been traditionally endemic for the disease. Doctors also fear that the disease could last long as people are reluctant to adhere to preventive measures, such as elimination of stagnant water pools from their neighbourhoods and usage of impregnated bed-nets to stay safe from bites of mosquitoes.

They said that incubation period of dengue fever was about 10 days and more patients would be diagnosed in coming days despite downtrend in temperature. Not only in Peshawar but also in all districts, coordination among line departments was not up to the desired level as mentioned in Dengue Action Plan 2024, they added.

Physicians wondered that an impression had been created that prevention and treatment of infected people was solely the responsibility of health department, which was not true. It required strong coordination among all departments to ensure that water did not accumulate and the people had uninterrupted power supply so that they did not store water to provide sanctuaries to mosquitoes, the carrier and transmitter of the virus, they added.

They said that healthcare providers had mastered the art of managing dengue patients due to which mortality from it had gone down but every department should realise its duty to provide full protection to people. Long spells of power breakdowns have exposed people to mosquito-bites and they are visiting hospitals and private clinics with high fever.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024