PESHAWAR: With the start of winter delayed due to climatic changes, dengue hemorrhagic fever continues to spread in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with 19 new cases reported on Saturday.

The virus is also in circulation due to frequent travel by people across regions, according to officials.

They said the dengue cases reported in the province this year had risen to 4,167.

The steady incidence has belied the earlier claim of authorities about a significant decline in cases by mid-November in light of previous trends.

19 more residents infected with virus in KP

When contacted, director (public health) Dr Irshad Roghani said winter wasn’t severe enough to eliminate mosquitoes — the carrier and transmitter of dengue virus — and the situation had been exacerbated by the frequent travel, the main cause of its transportation from one region to another.

“We have a lot of vector population and the virus is coming in from other cities to affect residents. The delayed winter onset has led to the presence of the vector in the province for which we have enhanced public awareness of safety measures,” he said.

According to a report of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response System at the Directorate General Health Services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province has 60 active dengue cases and nine patients are under treatment in hospitals. A total of 4,104 cases have recovered from the disease.

This year, dengue has killed three people in the province, including two in Nowshera district and one in Swabi district.

Peshawar district has reported 1,339 cases, Mardan 333, Mansehra 243, Abbottabad 242, Kohat 234, Nowshera 215, Lakki Marwat 207, Hangu 205, Lower Kohistan 201, Charsadda 162, Bannu 132 and Haripur 114.

Dr Irshad said that besides frequent public travel, the transportation of goods, especially old tyres, were also causing the virus to spread.

“Used tyres are the mainstay of dengue spread. We have frequently been urging the people to prevent accumulation of water in tyres to deny breeding space to mosquitoes,” he said.

The director said that in view of the climatic changes, a decision had been made for the enforcement of the Dengue Action Plan 2025 at the start of the next month to ensure measures for the elimination of mosquito larvae.

He said that usually, the DAP was implemented from March and April every year.

“Given the current situation, we will resume work at the start of the New Year,” he said.

Dr Roghani said that mosquitoes couldn’t survive when the temperature declined to 8-10 degrees and winter started, but currently, it was still above 13 degrees, keeping mosquitoes alive to bite people.

He said this year, too, the majority of the people were infected with dengue in cities before they travelled to their native villages.

The director said that changes had been made to DAP every year in light of previous trends.

“This strategy has been very successful,” he said.

Dr Roghani said that the enforcement of the revised DAP would begin earlier than the routine, focusing on the hard-hit areas for eliminating the vector.

“We are persuading the people to take measures to prevent mosquito bites and stay safe from the vector-borne disease,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2024