No laxity will be tolerated in anti-dengue campaign:Sohail Ahmed

Lahore: Additional Chief Secretary Punjab, Sohail Ahmed presided over a meeting for reviewing steps taken for eradication of dengue at Civil Secretariat, here today. Secretaries of different departments, commissioners and DCOs attended the meeting.

Additional Chief Secretary directed DCOs of all the districts to personally monitor the steps taken for anti-dengue and warned that no laxity will be tolerated in this regard. He said that campaign for creating awareness among the masses about anti-dengue should be made more effective as next three weeks are very important with regard to dengue virus.

Secretary Health Hassan Iqbal informed on this occasion that implementation has been started on new strategy for ensuring coverage of vaccination programme and routine immunization for checking dengue, measles, polio and other fatal diseases. He informed that despite more rains and hot and humid weather the spread of dengue disease has been controlled due to solid and practical steps taken by government departments for the eradication of dengue. He appealed to citizens not to permit water accumulation in their houses for checking the breeding of dengue and also adopt precautionary measures in this regard. Hassan Iqbal informed the meeting that 787 ml rains were recorded this year compare to 394 ml rains of the previous year. However, dengue disease was controlled to a large extent due to comprehensive strategy and efforts of health and other departments and only 685 cases of dengue were reported this year. He informed that increase in the number of dengue patients in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa has also affected two towns Rawal and Potohar of Rawalpindi. He told that during Eid holidays, a vigorous public awareness campaign was launched through print and electronic media in this regard. He further informed that the team of doctors has returned back to the country after getting training in Thailand and now members of this team will train more doctors as master trainers.