'Effective vector, disease surveillance confine dengue breeding'

Special Assistant to Chief Minister Punjab on Health Salman Rafique said that effective vector and disease surveillance had confined the dengue mosquito breeding process while all the concerned departments were fully prepared for effective control of dengue.
He said this while presiding over a Cabinet Committee meeting to review the implementation on the steps taken by the various departments for prevention and control of the dengue. Besides elected representatives from Lahore, Secretaries, Additional Secretaries and senior officers of the concerned department, including Health were present in the meeting.
Incharge of Chief Minister's Dengue Research Cell and senior entomologist Dr Waseem Akram informed the meeting that, so far, larva breeding of dengue was very much limited but due to rains "we have to remain at high alert and special attention should be paid on vector surveillance."
The senior officers of different departments briefed the participants of the meeting regarding the steps taken by their departments to check dengue. The meeting reviewed the arrangements made by the concerned departments in detail in perspective of rainy season.
Officials of Health department apprised the participants of the meeting regarding the arrangements made in public sector hospitals for the treatment of dengue patients and their diagnostic facilities. The meeting decided to depute entomologists of Agriculture Department, with district government, for counter-checking the data provided by their entomologists.
While addressing the meeting, Kh Salman Rafique said that control of dengue epidemic was a big challenge and Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif had accepted this challenge and assigned responsibilities to the public representatives and government departments.
He said all the departments and public representatives were working day and night and collectives efforts were being done for dengue prevention and control. Kh Salman Rafique warned that no dereliction would be tolerated from any individual of the department in this regard. Moreover, a spokesman of Health department hade said there was no shortage of NS-I kits in the teaching hospitals as every hospital had a sufficient stock of NS-I test kits for thousands patients, therefore, the rumours of shortage of such kits are baseless.
The spokesman further said that Mayo Hospital had a stock of more than 3,000 NS-I kits, whereas Service Hospital had stock for 1,800 test of NS-I. Similarly, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has 166 NS-I kits, while 80 tests are performed from one kit. Lahore General Hospital has 90 such kits in its stock. Moreover, Jinnah Hospital also has a sufficient stock of NS-I test kits.
The spokesman further said that more diagnostic kits would be provided, as and when required. He said due to concrete steps taken by the government and the concerted efforts by the concerned departments, dengue was fully under control and there is no need to worry about it.