LAHORE – Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister on Health, Khawaja Salman Rafique, has said that in view of last year’s experience, preventive measures including timely fogging, necessary training and provision of equipment for doctors and paramedical staff, have been taken against the possible outbreak of dengue.
Addressing a press conference at DGPR Office on Sunday, he said special arrangements have also been made in all the hospitals. Special Secretary Health Dawood Muhammad Khan, DCO Lahore Ahad Cheema, head of Chief Minister’s Dengue Research Programme Dr Wasim Akram, Additional Secretary Health Yawar Hussain and other senior officers were also present on the occasion.
He said on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Health Department was fully alert to deal with the challenge of dengue. He, while saying that teams of district administration had been engaged in checking of houses and field, claimed that presence of dengue larvae had not been detected anywhere so far.
Salman said master trainers who had received training in Thailand and Sri Lanka had imparted special training to doctors and paramedical staff of district and tehsil hospitals of the province, while provision of necessary medicines certified by World Health Organisation had also been ensured.
He said the chief minister was personally heading central committee, whereas Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa and Chief Secretary were holding weekly meeting of cabinet committee and provincial implementation committee to review the measures against dengue.
Similarly, he added that the control room set up at the office of DG Health was monitoring the relevant matters. He said special arrangements had been made for fogging and vector control in five major cities of the province including Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi. Salman said on the instructions of CM, abundant funds had been made available for dengue control and it was expected that the impact of dengue this year would be minimum.
Special Secretary Health Dawood Muhammad Khan said technical and medical facilities were available in all hospitals against dengue and a comprehensive protocol would be implemented this year.
The DCO said that 13 thousand spots and two lakh 24 thousand houses were checked in January and dengue larvae had been found at only six places.