LAHORE: National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday expressed concerns over the outbreak of dengue virus and said the situation was “hugely worrisome”, as the toll continues to soar.
Sharif noted that it is “unfortunate” that the virus had emerged again and said that the previous PML-N government had worked with a “missionary zeal to overcome the epidemic”.
“A complete health infrastructure, along with SOPs, was put in place to make sure that it does not recur again,” the former Punjab chief minister said via Twitter.
The news reports of dengue spreading are hugely worrisome. The PML-N government worked with a missionary zeal to overcome the epidemic. A complete health infrastructure along with SOPs was put in place to make sure that it does not recur again. Very unfortunate!
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) September 19, 2019
Over the last month, more than 500 people have been diagnosed with dengue in Rawalpindi alone and cases have also emerged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Several cases have also been reported in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K).
A day earlier, two patients diagnosed with dengue passed away in Rawalpindi’s Benazir Bhutto Hospital.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there is no vaccine available in Pakistan for the virus, which kills an estimated 20,000 people each year and infects up to 100 million across the world.
