KARACHI: The Sindh government decided on Thursday to enlist the help of Punjabi dengue experts to train physicians and other members of the provincial health department as dengue and malaria cases have started to spread quickly throughout the province, particularly in the capital, during monsoon rains.
According to official sources, the decision to that effect was made at a high-level meeting that was presided over by Chief Secretary Muhammad Sohail Rajput and attended, among others, by the Administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the City Commissioner, Muhammad Iqbal Memon, the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad, retired Captain Muhammad Usman, and health department officers with a connection to vector-borne diseases.
The conference was updated on the dengue virus's spread throughout the province. The committee was informed that 4,031 dengue cases had been registered in the province so far this year, and that the illness had claimed the lives of nine people, all in Karachi.
6,373 dengue cases in all had been documented by 2021.
It was also disclosed that Karachi reported the majority of dengue cases. District East alone saw 1,397 instances reported, followed by 857 cases in Central, 679 cases in South, 161 cases in Korangi, 138 cases in Keamari, and 106 cases in district West.
The situation was not reported as alarmingly in other parts of the province as it was in Karachi. There were 175 documented cases in Tharparkar, 31 in each of Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, and Umerkot, and 26 in each of Badin and Thatta.
Usman, the chief commissioner of Islamabad, who has also held the position of primary health secretary in Punjab and has stayed involved with anti-dengue measures, offered his experience with dengue management there and provided information on the method used to eradicate the dengue virus there.
In order to make the current campaign successful and more completely eradicate the virus in Sindh, the chief secretary said that daily dengue reports will be collected from all public and private hospitals, laboratories, and clinics.
He stated that after tagging dengue sufferers, the virus would be sprayed out of their homes and 20 nearby residential institutions.
The chief secretary also gave orders to all deputy commissioners to meet with the relevant departments and provide daily updates.
In addition, he announced that the province will hire entomologists and launch a public awareness campaign.
On Wednesday, 201 instances of the dengue virus were registered in Karachi, according to administrator and provincial government spokesman Murtaza Wahab. He continued, "The health department has begun spraying and fumigating to kill the larvae in dengue-affected areas.
According to the administrator, 30 KMC vans are currently fumigating every area of Karachi in an effort to eradicate dengue.
He added that through the Sindh Healthcare Commission, the provincial government would also lower the cost of a dengue virus test.
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