The outbreak of the dengue virus is not the result of fake medicine spray and laboratory tests have proven the authenticity of the medicine for the disease imported from Germany.
Concluding the open house debate on dengue fever outbreak and its damages in the Punjab Assembly on Friday, Punjab Health Secretary Saeed Elahi categorically dispelled the impression that ‘fake spray’ had caused the outbreak of the fever in the province. He said the Punjab government had imported medicine for dengue from India instead of Germany and these medicine were less costly than the German medicine.
He expressed gratitude on behalf of the government to the lawmakers from all political parties in the Punjab Assembly for their precious suggestions to control the deadly virus. He assured them that government would try to include all these suggestions in the policy in the course of controlling the epidemic. Elahi said the government was using all its resources to control the disease and had left no stone unturned in the endeavours.
He said it was a wrong concept that the dengue virus had spread as a result of negligence of the provincial departments, adding that “the reality is that the epidemic spread in many countries like a natural calamity”. He assured the provincial assembly that the Punjab government would “soon control the epidemic through its effective strategy and no room will be left for the outbreak in future”.
Informing the House about the steps taken to control the fever, Elahi said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was himself supervising the campaign against the epidemic in the province and fumigation had been carried out in the entire province. The health secretary informed the House that experts from other countries had been called to Pakistan so that “we can benefit from their expertise in controlling the disease”, adding, “Special and exceptional arrangements have been made in public as well as private sector hospitals to provide free-of-cost treatment to the patients, and a stern action will be taken in case directions regarding facilitation to dengue patients were not adhered to”.
Earlier, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah requested chair to allow the House to hold an open house debate on dengue per the assembly’s business advisory committee’s decision, which was accepted.
