Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has finally formed a committee, under the chairmanship of Dr Faisal Masood, to probe the actual cause of death of dengue patients admitted in both public and private hospitals, Pakistan Today has learnt. The committee, with two members on board, would probe the cause of deaths during the entire dengue epidemic this year.
Sources revealed that the decision came after continuous media reports on the number of deaths, while the Punjab Health Department had been playing down on it. Even Punjab Health Secretary Jehanzaib Khan admitted before journalists that the number of cases being reported to the department was not correct and the government was taking measures to fill the loopholes.
Similarly, the death toll of dengue patients as per the department is 19 so far, while unofficial toll stands at around 50. However, health officials claim that the deaths reported by the media were not verified, and the real cause of death was other than dengue fever.
CDC Director Dr Malik Mubashar said, as opposed to the practice in the developed world, it was not a practice here to find out actual cause of death of a patient before discharging the body from the hospital.
GOVT CHALKS OUT LONG TERM PLAN AGAINST DENGUE: On the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, a long-term dengue control programme is being chalked out to curb dengue. For this purpose, a technical committee comprising public health experts has been constituted which would present its recommendations within a short span of time to evolve future strategy. The first meeting of the committee would be held within two days. This was stated by Punjab Health Special Secretary Dawood Muhammad Khan, while addressing the daily media briefing regarding dengue fever at KEMU committee room on Monday.
The special secretary said that the responsibility of data collection of dengue patients had been given to Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), which has prepared a software to remove the complaints regarding data of dengue patients.
Khan said that there was no shortage of medicines, especially of Panadol tablets in public sector hospitals, and a stock of two million Panadol tablets was available with Punjab Health Department.
Khan said that special programme was being made for IRS and as much as 1,000 spray pumps and foggers were being provided for this purpose. He informed the media-men that at present 515 dengue patients were under treatment in different hospitals and all medical facilities were being provided in government hospitals free-of-cost. Khan said 6,462 patients had so far been cured and discharged. He said that the total number of dengue patients in Punjab had reached 6,666, out of which 6,126 belonged to Lahore.
In the last 24 hours, 205 new dengue patients were reported in Punjab, out of which 173 belonged to Lahore, said Khan, adding that 10 blood testing centres established in 10 towns of Lahore with the collaboration of Chughtais Lab had provided free testing facility to 6,329 patients so far. The most affected areas of Lahore were Gulberg Town and Data Ganj Bakhsh Town.
