Dengue season

THE onset of monsoon rains in many parts of the country has brought back memories of the havoc wreaked last year by the dengue mosquito. While the potentially deadly dengue virus infected a number of people across Pakistan, Lahore was affected particularly badly. In preparation for what this year may bring, federal government organisations, including cantonment boards and Pakistan Railways, were asked on Monday to launch anti-dengue campaigns in their jurisdictions across Rawalpindi Division, buttressing the efforts of the Punjab government in this regard. At a meeting attended by health officials as well as the district coordination officers of the four districts of Rawalpindi Division, it was announced that Sept 2 would be observed as antidengue day in the province and that seminars and walks would be held to create awareness. Meanwhile, the Community Safety, Information and Training Wing of Rescue 1122, Rawalpindi, has also started similar awareness raising seminars.These are laudable steps that need to be replicated in other parts of the country. Efforts in different cities and areas are currently more piecemeal than coordinated, with the odd seminar or fumigation drive being carried out. A concerted push to minimise the risk of another dengue outbreak would involve close collaboration on the provincial and district levels, as well as with city administrations and municipal departments.

This must be done if we are to prevent hospitals from being flooded, as they have been in earlier seasons, with dengue patients. A mass awareness raising campaign through radio and television would be invaluable, putting out information such as that the dengue mosquito breeds in fresh, not stagnant, water. Cleanup of cities and towns should be undertaken in any case, but people also need hard information that could help them avoid providing the disease-carrying mosquito breeding space in their homes, such as in uncovered pails of water.