Power load shedding causing an increase in dengue cases

The health experts suggested that mass awareness campaign should be launched by involving media, educational institutions and community leaders to control the causes of the disease instead of focusing on the late stage when it results in the ailment of people.
Government and Civil society representatives from all provinces and parts of the country took part in the consensus building session organized by Planning Commission of Pakistan on the topic of dengue Outbreak: Experiences, lessons learnt-coordinating response on Tuesday. Health experts while sharing their experiences and views said that power load shedding compelled people to store water for use in their houses as they were not sure about water availability. They said that this habitat provides mosquito breeding sites. Director Health Capital Development Authority (CDA) Dr Hassan Arooj said that there are many factors contributing to the dengue fever. He said that 95 per cent dengue cases could be avoided if people would be informed regarding precautionary measures. In her detailed presentation, Rana Kakar deliberated upon the causes and preventions of the diseases. She stressed the need for community involvement in removing mosquito breeding sites besides using quality insecticides and effective strategy to eliminate mosquitoes in dengue outbreak areas. She said that timely and appropriate hospital management was need of the hour to control the disease. Giving break up of the figures, she said that till September 2011, as many as 35 cases of Dengue virus were reported in Islamabad with one death. Similarly 3270 cases were reported from Punjab with 6 deaths, 195 from Sindh with 1 death, 25 cases from Khyber Pakthunkhwa with one death and 5 cases from AJK. However, there was no case reported from the Baluchistan.
In his comments, representative from the Punjab government, Dr. Yaqoob said that most of the paramedics staff is not trained to deal with dengue fever as they were not trained and well informed to tackle the disease. He said that if all the cooperative societies are to be forced to take precautionary measures as defined in their rules; we would never have to face such a situation. However, he said despite all this the government has taken best possible measures to overcome the disease. DG Health Khyber Pakthunkhwa, Dr. Shareef stressed the need for developing a surveillance network and conducting operational research besides training the paramedical staff to overcome the menace. He said that operational research regarding Dengue has not been done yet. Special Secretary Sindh, Sikan Qamar, said that his government was facing shortage of human resource and funds adding that there were total 195 positive cases in the Sindh province, including 169 in Karachi and 26 in Sindh. He said that in Karachi, Orangi was the most affected area of the disease. He said that dengue cases were feared to multiply in Sindh owing to recent floods. Dr. Qutab Kakar said that major focus should be on vector control adding that it was the key to check the disease.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr. Nadeem-ul-Haq while speaking on the occasion stressed the need for devising a comprehensive plan to launch coordinated efforts for controlling the out break of the disease.
Advising the media to refrain from sensitisation and panic creation about the Dengue fever, top health experts stressed the need for community involvement and integrated efforts to overcome this viral disease. The meeting concluded with several recommendations suggesting for community involvement by sensitising masses to make them responsible regarding such social responsibilities. The health experts suggested that mass awareness campaign should be launched by involving media, educational institutions and community leaders to control the causes of the disease instead of focusing on the late stage when it results in the ailment of people. They also suggested that the utilisation of effective insecticides, at proper time with proper methods would, to a great extent help over come the disease. Besides, they stressed the need for effective case management and highlighted the importance of training programmes for medical staff to prepare them to deal with the disease properly, besides disseminating guidelines to the general public.
The health experts suggested launching of a federal provincial coordinated plan and suggested the formulation of a contact group to materialise these suggestions about Dengue control. Speaking on the occasion, Talib Lashari said that the purpose of conducting the workshop was to share experience and come up with suggestions for the effective control of the disease in the country.