RAWALPINDI: Dengue mosquitoes have started to emerge on the premises of three government-run hospitals in the government city. The same hospitals are currently seeing a steady stream of dengue patients.

On Wednesday a health department team supervised by entomologist Fatima Haq visited the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and discovered dengue mosquitoes in the doctors’ hostel, the surgical ward and the hospital gardens.

Another team found dengue mosquitoes at the Holy Family Hospital on Tuesday.

A senior doctor told Dawn that the presence of dengue mosquitoes on hospital premises could be dangerous as a patient could contract the virus if they are bitten.

He said that hospital administrations had to adopt safety measures and properly fumigate areas in and around their hospitals. He said that they also needed to adopt precautionary measures.

BBH medical superintendent Dr Asif Qadir Mir said that BBH had been fumigated as per routine, and that there was no presence of dengue larvae or dengue mosquitoes on the hospital premises.

He said that the hospital wards had also been protected, and added that the health department team that visited the hospital did not find anything on the hospital premises.

When contacted, Executive District Officer Health Dr Arshad Ali Sabir said that the teams that visited the hospitals found dengue mosquitoes.

“After the spread of the dengue virus this season, the teams have found dengue mosquitoes and larvae in each and every union council (UC) and to eliminate this, fogging and Indoor Residual Surveillance (IRS) are in progress,” he said.

He said that the number of dengue patients would decline as temperatures continue to fall. He said teams were working to eliminate the mosquitoes, and their results would be visible by the end of the month.

Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed told Dawn that the provincial government was concerned that there had not been a decrease in dengue patients and had chosen to accelerate anti-dengue efforts.

“Experts believe that, after the chill in the air, the dengue mosquitoes will be eliminated and the effect of the current wave of cold weather will be visible in the next week,” he said.

Mr Saeed said that most patients were arriving from Amarpura, Glass Factory, Rawal Road, Satellite Town Block D and nearby areas.

“Teams have been provided binoculars so they can inspect rooftops of houses from nearby highrise buildings,” he said.

As many as 207 confirmed dengue patients are still admitted to government-run hospitals – 109 at HFH, 88 at BBH and 10 at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

Doctors said that there had been no decrease in the number of patients arriving at the hospitals.

Published in Dawn October 29th, 2015

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