Sindh mulls over measures to curb dengue virus outbreak

KARACHI: In this season 4031 cases of dengue virus have been reported in Sindh, a meeting chaired by chief secretary briefed on Thursday.

The session on the increasing cases of dengue fever in Karachi and other parts of Sindh, was also attended by Administrator Karachi Murtaza Wahab, Commissioner Islamabad, Secretary Local Govt, Commissioner Karachi and other officials.

Commissioner Islamabad, who was especially invited to the meeting, briefed the session about the mechanism to fight dengue virus in Punjab.

Provincial chief secretary urged for measures to make the system more effective for eradication of dengue virus in Sindh. “A system will be developed to get daily report on dengue cases from all government and private hospitals and laboratories,” he said.

“A spray will be conducted in surrounding houses where a patient of dengue infection will be found”. “The province will also recruit more entomologists,” chief secretary said.

Administrator Karachi Murtaza Wahab said that Karachi yesterday reported 201 cases of dengue virus. The city administration will launch a fumigation and spray drive to destroy larvae of dengue mosquitoes.

He said the charges for dengue virus diagnosis test will be slashed.

An outbreak of dengue virus reported in Karachi with increasing number of the virus cases.

The city’s six out of the seven District Municipal Corporations have demanded funds for fumigation operations.

The provincial government has not released funds to six out of total seven DMCs of the city to launch fumigation drive. Only DMC Malir has been issued a fund of Rs20 million for fumigation, sources said.