PESHAWAR: With the dengue season fast approaching, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has directed medical teaching institutions to appoint focal persons for sharing data of the people infected with the mosquito-borne disease.

In a letter, additional director-general (health services) Dr Shahid Yunis told the MTIs’ hospital and medical directors to nominate focal persons for updating the health department about the dengue cases.

He emphasised that as the dengue season was just round the corner, it was imperative to accord priority to preventive measures and establish early surveillance systems to minimise transmission risks and identify potential outbreaks on time.

Referring to a dengue season advisory issued by the National Institute of Health Islamabad and circulated to authorities coupled with the provincial chief secretary’s directives, Dr Yunis said that all relevant departments were required to collaborate effectively for the successful implementation of the Dengue Action Plan, 2025.

Orders preventive steps, establishment of early disease surveillance system

Deputy director (public health) Dr Mussawir Manzoor told Dawn that in order to ensure prompt dengue case reporting and real-time data sharing, MTIs had been asked to notify focal persons and task them with sharing the data of dengue cases with the health department.

“The chief secretary has already approved the Dengue Action Plan, 2025, while the committees have also been notified for its enforcement. Activities have already begun at the district and provincial levels and hopefully, the number of dengue cases will be fewer this year than last year’s,” he said.

Dr Manzoor said that a provincial advisory group for DAP’s implementation had been notified but strengthening collaboration with MTIs was required as most patients were recorded there.

He said that dengue prevention was possible through public awareness, so the health department had been working to scale up people’s knowledge of the causes of the disease and ways to prevent it.

The official said that measures had been taken to implement NIH’s guidelines for effective preventive measures against dengue, early surveillance and prioritisation of rapid response protocols along with adherence to standard operating procedures for mosquito larval elimination, public awareness campaigns, and prompt case reporting to reduce outbreak risks.

He said the NIH advisory outlined comprehensive guidelines for proactive mobilisation of teams, rigorous monitoring of high-risk zones and timely case reporting to provincial directorate to facilitate timely detection of potential outbreaks.

“We have shared the advisory with all district health officers, hospital medical superintendents and MTI directors for immediate dissemination across healthcare facilities,” he said.

The first dengue outbreak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was reported in 2015 when 1,397 residents were infected with the vector-borne disease, according to official figures.

The next year, the number of infections dropped to 998 but in 2017, the province witnessed the worst outbreak, which killed 69 people and affected 26,343 people, mostly in Peshawar.

Dengue continued to hit the province afterwards as 1,022 cases were detected in 2018, 7,082 in 2019 and 60 in 2020. However, it killed 10 people and affected 10,615 people in 2021. Deaths totalled 18 the next year with the tally of cases surging to22,960.

However, the number of cases dropped to 747in 2023with no death recorded. In 2024, only 117 dengue cases and zero mortality were reported.

Officials of the health department attribute that “success” against dengue to proper coordination among all relevant departments, which, they said, led to reduction of production of mosquito, the carrier and transmitter of the virus.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2025