PESHAWAR(National Times)- Health department is concerned over lack of cooperation by medical teaching institutions regarding sharing complete data of dengue cases amid slight rise in the number of people infected with vector-borne disease in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to sources.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 178 dengue cases this year so far with Peshawar as usual atop of the list of patients with a tally of 96, followed by Kohat with 25 patients and Bannu with nine infections while Mohmand and Karak have registered five cases each.
Sources told this scribe that the disease was prevalent in 17 districts of the province but mildly. “However, health department wants medical teaching institutions (MTIs) to share complete line-lists of patients so that preventive strategies can be strengthened,” they added.
The department has been urging MTIs to inform it about the addresses of confirmed patients to enable it to trace contacts of cases, take preventive measures and put brakes on the transmission of disease to other people.
Peshawar has been the epicentre of dengue virus for the past one decade. The district was reporting bulk of cases every year except last year when Charsadda recorded most patients due to violent outbreak of dengue there.
“Many of Peshawar’s villages have been hotspots of dengue virus due to which the department has been focusing on the provincial capital. However, MTIs are the only hospitals where patients go and get tested,” sources said. They said that if health department was informed in timely manner, it could swing into action.
They said that health department was not kept abreast of the situation due to which it feared that infected persons would remain untraced and could spread the virus to population.
According to a report released by Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response System (IDSRS) at Directorate General Health Services, it has been inspecting houses and outdoor space for larvae to ensure that the production of mosquitoes is checked and people can be safeguarded against the disease. So far, it has inspected 835,558 containers. The larvae found in 502 containers had been destroyed.
The report said that larvae in 297 of the total 242,763 houses had been eliminated chemically while 260 positive outdoor sites had also been sprayed to do away with larvae.
Sources said that the department got chemicals to destroy positive sites and its workers continued to inspect places. However, sharing of information by MTIs about dengue cases would help workers to visit the infected areas and ensure that the virus did not infect people, they added.
The report said that 53,882 community awareness sessions were conducted. The sessions were attended by 203,775 women and 38,741 men. In addition, 40 awareness walks were held in hotspot areas. It said that the department was supporting transportation of samples to Public Health Reference Laboratory in Khyber Medical University and 178 cases were found positive of the total 954 suspected cases.
Last year, the province recorded 6,281 dengue patients and four deaths. Dengue has become a recurring public health issue, therefore, people have come to know about its preventive measures. Health professionals can manage cases effectively due to which the number of cases and mortalities go down.
In 2017, Peshawar witnessed the worst-ever outbreak of dengue when hospitals were overcrowded with patients and 70 people died. However, now there is a sea change in the situation as people are using repellents and impregnated bed nets to stay safe from bites of mosquitoes, the carrier and transmitters of the disease.
Health department heavily banked on the information sharing by MTIs as well as private hospitals regarding dengue cases in order to prevent major outbreaks, officials said.
