PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department is not sharing line-list of dengue haemorrhagic fever patients with the World Health Organisation, according to sources.
They said that another patient of dengue died here on Wednesday, brining death toll to 18. They said that patient died at Khyber Teaching Hospital.
Health Secretary Abid Majeed told Dawn that they had representation of the WHO at dengue response unit, which looked after the province-wide situation with regard to the mosquito-borne disease.
“As of past three days, we have streamlined situation and now we are carrying out activities in specific areas from where cases are reported,” he said. He added that they were getting information from hospitals about the origination of the dengue patients and doing screening and larvicidal activity there.
“We cannot spray everywhere because it is not appropriate due to water contamination,” said Mr Majeed. He said that number of cases was receding and they hoped that soon they would get rid of the dengue fever.
“We have been asking the medical teaching institutions to send us line-list of dengue patients on regular basis but they aren’t doing it,” said health officials associated with dengue-related activities in the province.
Death toll reaches 18 as one more dengue patient dies in Peshawar
They said that WHO, which had already expressed concerns over the lackluster response of the health department towards dengue fever, wanted the list for timely response to the epidemic.
A report released by dengue response unit said that 1,797 suspected patients were screened during the past 24 hours and 316 of them were tested positive with 175 hospitalisations. Presently, 490 patients are being treated at the hospitals.
Sources in the health department told Dawn that they had been asking the medical teaching institutions to furnish list with complete addresses of the patients to respond to the situation effectively but all their requests had fallen on deaf ears. They said that the world health agency played vital role in the past when dengue fever broke out in Swat in 2013. “The WHO wants to assist the government technically in the present situation,” they added.
The health department requires line-list of dengue patients with their complete addresses and locations so they could take measures, including public awareness campaigns, fumigation and screening of the patients besides ascertaining information about travel history of the infected people.
The WHO needs the complete lists of people, who died of the diseases along with confirmed and hospitalised patients and their information after their recovery, so that they could be traced. “The WHO can help us in dealing with the issue because of the expertise and technical knowhow but we are not able to compile a comprehensive report,” sources said.
They said that it was important to have line-list of dengue patients and share it with WHO for effective management. “The WHO is working with federal government and all provinces. It can manage the situation if we give it complete data with travel history of patients and current location,” they said.
Deputy Commissioner Saqib Aslam Raza told Dawn that it was because of their efforts that virus was contained and prevented from spreading to other areas from Tehkal and Pishtakhara.
“We have cleaned 74,000 houses in vulnerable areas and a comprehensive package has been designed that includes spraying of stagnant water pools, homes and awareness drive,” he said.
Mr Raza said that they were scaling up public awareness to identify larva and ways for its elimination. “Our teams worked throughout Eid days,” he said.
KTH is catering to bulk of the patients as it received 1,045 dengue patients till Wednesday evening, followed by Lady Reading Hospital with 281 patients, Hayatabad Medical Complex with 170 patients and Mardan Medical Complex with 91 patients.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2017
They said that another patient of dengue died here on Wednesday, brining death toll to 18. They said that patient died at Khyber Teaching Hospital.
Health Secretary Abid Majeed told Dawn that they had representation of the WHO at dengue response unit, which looked after the province-wide situation with regard to the mosquito-borne disease.
“As of past three days, we have streamlined situation and now we are carrying out activities in specific areas from where cases are reported,” he said. He added that they were getting information from hospitals about the origination of the dengue patients and doing screening and larvicidal activity there.
“We cannot spray everywhere because it is not appropriate due to water contamination,” said Mr Majeed. He said that number of cases was receding and they hoped that soon they would get rid of the dengue fever.
“We have been asking the medical teaching institutions to send us line-list of dengue patients on regular basis but they aren’t doing it,” said health officials associated with dengue-related activities in the province.
Death toll reaches 18 as one more dengue patient dies in Peshawar
They said that WHO, which had already expressed concerns over the lackluster response of the health department towards dengue fever, wanted the list for timely response to the epidemic.
A report released by dengue response unit said that 1,797 suspected patients were screened during the past 24 hours and 316 of them were tested positive with 175 hospitalisations. Presently, 490 patients are being treated at the hospitals.
Sources in the health department told Dawn that they had been asking the medical teaching institutions to furnish list with complete addresses of the patients to respond to the situation effectively but all their requests had fallen on deaf ears. They said that the world health agency played vital role in the past when dengue fever broke out in Swat in 2013. “The WHO wants to assist the government technically in the present situation,” they added.
The health department requires line-list of dengue patients with their complete addresses and locations so they could take measures, including public awareness campaigns, fumigation and screening of the patients besides ascertaining information about travel history of the infected people.
The WHO needs the complete lists of people, who died of the diseases along with confirmed and hospitalised patients and their information after their recovery, so that they could be traced. “The WHO can help us in dealing with the issue because of the expertise and technical knowhow but we are not able to compile a comprehensive report,” sources said.
They said that it was important to have line-list of dengue patients and share it with WHO for effective management. “The WHO is working with federal government and all provinces. It can manage the situation if we give it complete data with travel history of patients and current location,” they said.
Deputy Commissioner Saqib Aslam Raza told Dawn that it was because of their efforts that virus was contained and prevented from spreading to other areas from Tehkal and Pishtakhara.
“We have cleaned 74,000 houses in vulnerable areas and a comprehensive package has been designed that includes spraying of stagnant water pools, homes and awareness drive,” he said.
Mr Raza said that they were scaling up public awareness to identify larva and ways for its elimination. “Our teams worked throughout Eid days,” he said.
KTH is catering to bulk of the patients as it received 1,045 dengue patients till Wednesday evening, followed by Lady Reading Hospital with 281 patients, Hayatabad Medical Complex with 170 patients and Mardan Medical Complex with 91 patients.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2017
