The country’s economic hub seems poorly-equipped to curb the onset of dengue and malaria this year. The peak season of malaria and dengue viral fever has begun in Sindh province with the first spell of Monsoon rains in Karachi and is expected to continue till December 2014 but Dengue Prevention and Control Program is still non-functional due to internal differences between top Health Department officials which has put hundreds of lives at stake in Karachi city and other parts of province.
An official of Sindh Health Department on the condition of anonymity said that Sindh Dengue Surveillance Cell was upgraded into Dengue Prevention and Control Program about five months back and the government had also allocated millions of rupees for the purpose of surveillance and prevention in 2014 but unfortunately the program could not be named functional due to differences amongst big guns of the provincial health department. Due to this rift many posts, including those of data operators, are still vacant.
He said the peak season of malaria and dengue viral fever has already started in the province and will continue till December as dengue larva breeding increases during this period.
He said that dengue cases are being reported from Karachi for past eight years but a concrete step has yet to be taken. He said that the provincial government while keeping in mind last year’s dengue cases reported in Karachi, had upgraded the dengue cell into a program for better surveillance and prevention but the tug of war between officials rendered this program practically non-functional.
Meanwhile, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has yet to start an anti-dengue fumigation campaign in the city due to shortage of funds. The official said fumigation, preventative measures, biological control of dengue mosquitoes and training of doctors could not be started across the province due to the non-functional program.
He said that dengue cases are being reported in different healthcare centers of Karachi on daily basis, but the administration of the dengue program is not sharing this data with the media for past several months. He said six people have already died and more than 200 dengue cases were reported in 2014 till April as per the last data shared by Dengue Surveillance Cell before its up-gradation.
He further said that over 5,750 dengue viral fever cases were reported across Sindh province in 2013, out of which 5,058 were detected in Karachi and 692 in the rest of Sindh, adding that 32 dengue patients died across Sindh in 2013, out of which 26 were in Karachi, three in Hyderabad and one each in Mirpurkhas, Thatta and Larkana.
