RAWALPINDI: The number of dengue patients in the three government hospitals has increased after the monsoon season, with 168 patients treated for the virus in the garrison city between March and September this year.

Though the health department and other civic agencies have been conducting a campaign for eliminating dengue larvae for a year, dengue patients started coming in from all corners of the city and cantonment areas as soon as the monsoon season started.

A senior official of the health department told Dawn that Rs2.1 million worth of fuel had been consumed during fogging in Rawal Town and that Rs0.5 million worth of fuel was spent on the same in Potohar Town.

More cases expected in coming days as some areas were not fogged; DCO blames heavier rains for increase in number of patients

He added that Rs5.8 million worth of torches, pencils and colours had also been purchased for the anti-dengue campaign.

According to a report by the Rawalpindi Medical College and sent to the Punjab government, 168 patients were treated for dengue between the three government-run hospitals between March and September this year of which 116 were at the Holy Family Hospital (HFH), 34 at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) and 14 at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital.

At present, 14 diagnosed dengue patients are admitted in the ward in HFH, six in its intensive care unit and four are being treated at BBH. The number of suspected dengue cases at the three hospitals is 22, of which 16 are in HFH, four in BBH and two at DHQ Hospital.

According to the records for dengue patients in Rawalpindi city, five dengue patients had arrived at the three hospitals in 2012, 272 in 2011, no patients in 2012 while there were 1,212 patients in 2013 and 1,532 in 2014. The three hospitals saw 3,303 patients in 2015 and 168 in 2016 till September 17.

Meanwhile, the local administration is busy holding meetings with all departments of various civic bodies and provincial departments as well in order to check on the status of anti-dengue campaigns.

“The Rawalpindi district was declared dengue free in 2012 as teams had started anti-dengue campaigns as early as the end of February and no cases were reported from August to December. The Punjab government had then given a special prize to the health department,” a senior official of the local government said while talking to Dawn.

The official said that the services of the 12 doctors who were trained from Thailand and Sri Lanka and participated in the 2012 campaign were not utilised in the current campaign.

He said that the number of dengue patients is expected to increase in the coming few days as fogging is yet to be carried out in some areas. The authorities have been more interested in punishing commercial outlets for violating standard operating procedures and did not focus on raising awareness among the masses, he added.

When asked, District Coordination Officer (DCO) Talat Mehmood Gondal said that the City District Government Rawalpindi was monitoring the campaign and that third party evaluations will also be used.

The DCO said that the number of dengue mosquitoes had increased due to the more than normal rains and that efforts were being done to avoid the spread of the virus and that the government had warned officials of consequences in case of negligence in eliminating the virus.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2016