The district administration, during an ongoing campaign against dengue fever, had declared 13 Union Councils of the city at high risk due to the presence of dengue mosquito larvae in abundance.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Imran said here Friday that preventive measures were already underway to kill the larvae and avoid the spread of dengue infection, adding that a comprehensive dengue prevention campaign was underway in the areas and would continue until November.
He said that the Pakistan Red Crescent (PRC) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter was assisting the district administration in the campaign.
As part of the campaign, the volunteers of PRC KP, officials of the health department, and district administration inspected 17,000 houses and educated the people on preventive measures against dengue fever during their house-to-house visits.
The spokesman of the PRC KP, Zeeshan Anwar, said that dengue mosquitoes’ larvae were also eliminated in 501 houses. On the other hand coordinated efforts by all line departments have led to drastic decline in Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded only 75 confirmed cases so far compared 1,516 cases during this period last year.
Experts attributed this downward trend in the mosquito-borne ailment to multi-sectoral approach adopted by all government departments under the district administrations in the province.
“The comparison of total dengue confirmed cases in 2022 and 2023 from January to August shows that we have controlled the disease. Last year from January to August, the total dengue positive cases were 1,516. In the current year, the count is 75,” they said.
The reduction in the number of dengue patients is due to the continuous efforts carried out at district level under the supervision of district health officers and role of medical entomologists across the province.
KP has recorded only 75 confirmed cases in current year
“However, we have to continue work as temperature level is still conducive for the production of mosquitoes, the transmitter of the virus. In the event of more rains, the people should pursue preventive measures to stay safe from the mosquito bites,” said health experts.
In addition to the efforts being carried out by line departments, public awareness regarding the causative agents of the vector-borne disease was risen as the disease had been endemic in the province since long, they said.
They said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been detecting dengue cases since 2008. They said that many areas witnessed violent outbreaks of the disease that also caused mortalities as it killed more than 70 people and infected 25,000 others in 2017.
Peshawar was the epicentre of the disease as it recorded 60 mortalities. Few cases were diagnosed in 2018 and the disease continued to decline except in 2022 when it killed 18 people in the province.
