In the last 24 hours, 373 more people in the Punjab?tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of such cases reported this year to 5,413, indicating that the dengue fever has spread to at least 25 districts of Punjab.
According to the government figures, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Gujranwala saw the majority of the cases.
Officials in the areas of public health and medicine have issued warnings that the recent floods and rains, particularly in south Punjab, represent a major threat from dengue.
They assert that instead of actually initiating anti-dengue activities like those in 20102011 when the virus first appeared in Punjab, the district and health officials are only producing reports claiming elimination of dengue larva.
According to the officials, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab at the time, conducted 40 high-level meetings back-to-back to strictly enforce anti-dengue rules. They recall that those sessions used to be attended by the chief secretary, IG police, special branch head, health minister, and secretaries of approximately 30 involved government ministries.
Since the health department called most of the meetings to discuss the dengue outbreak, they regretted that such spirit was lacking under the current provincial government.
Thousands of health teams will visit the rooftops of homes, businesses, official residences, markets, godowns, parks, educational institutions, and even government offices to eliminate dengue larva, according to a retired public health officer who participated in previous anti-dengue actions. He recalls that hundreds of thousands of cases were filed across Punjab at the time under anti-dengue regulations, and that the law enforcement authorities assisting the anti-dengue efforts would directly report to the chief minister.
He regrets that these customs have now largely been abandoned and warns that in the wake of the country’s extreme flooding and rain, people are more susceptible to dengue. He cautions that if ignored, the dengue outbreak could become unmanageable for the administration.
As per official data, 192 new cases were reported in Lahore, 101 in Rawalpindi, and 22 in Gujranwala. Meanwhile, Multan, Gujrat, Attock, Sialkot, Vehari, Hafizabad, Rahim Yar Khan, Sheikhpura, Okara, Nankana Sahib, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalnagar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Toba Tek Singh, Bhakar, Mianwali, Jhang, Pakpatan, and Layyah are other districts, where according to the data, 2,278 cases of the virus have been reported in Lahore since January of this year.
According to official statistics, Punjab has also reported a total of eight deaths during the same span of time that were connected to dengue fever.
As per previous data released by National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, the dengue cased reported in Pakistan from 2017-2020 were 22,938. Meanwhile, in 2021 the cases reached 48,906 in total; however, 16388 dengue cases had been registered from November 19, 2021 to December 10, 2021. With each passing year Pakistan faces dengue cases more and more, no matter what the governments effort to eradicate this epidemic.