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Hamza Rahman
RAWALPINDI, Aug 19 (APP):Rawalpindi District Health Authority (DHA) is implementing a comprehensive public health initiative to combat the dengue threat.
The three pronged strategy combines accelerated surveillance, rigorous response and strict punitive actions tackle with the disease spread.
Dr. Ehsan Ghani, CEO DHA while interacting with APP on Tuesday highlighted that the disease surveillance being top priority is focused to monitor the situation in real time. He emphasized that mosquito surveillance, paired with disease surveillance, effectively tracks confirmed dengue cases to curb the virus’s spread.
“We have adopted a multi-faceted approach that combines rigorous entomological and clinical surveillance to provide real-time insights into the situation, our teams are actively engaged in mosquito surveillance, complemented by disease surveillance to identify and confirm clinical cases, which helps us track the spread of the virus”, he said.
Dr. Ghani underscored the use of outdoor and indoor residual spraying, larvicide application and widespread public awareness campaigns to reduce the mosquito population and transmission.
“High-risk semi-urban and peri-urban areas, identified through spatial vulnerability analysis are prioritized for swift response”, said health chief.
He maintained that active case detection in academic and workplace settings ensures quick responses on affected premises. Dr. Ghani further said that community health workers are educating households on proper water storage, portable larvicide use and entomological monitoring to drive behavioral changes.
He underlined the importance of strong inter-sectoral coordination with municipal and education departments, which provides critical support. He highlighted that the Dengue Tracking System dashboard enables continuous data analysis, facilitating timely alerts and rapid response team deployment.
“The initiative remains adaptable, with ongoing research and field validation to address climatic changes that may impact the mosquito life cycle”, he said while highlighting the usefulness of the maneuver support Dengue Tracking System dashboard.
Regarding the latest statistics as of August 18, the CEO Health confirmed that 45 dengue cases in Rawalpindi and 47 in Murree have been detected, out of 4,854 suspected cases. He informed that 96% of 32605 identified larva spots have been cleared since August 1. Since January 1, the surveillance campaign includes inspection of 4538796 houses, with 70714 found positive, and 1176,712 outdoor spots checked, with 12661 detected positive.
He emphasized that high-risk union councils, including Ward-4 Wah Cantt, Dhoke Hassu Janobi, Dhoke Mangtal, Kulyal, Dhama Syedan, Waris Khan, CTC-1, Dhoke Farman Ali, Gangal, CTR-3, and Ratta Amral remained under close scrutiny.
“The tireless efforts of the teams and the public’s cooperation remain highly commendable”, said Dr. Ghani and stressed for continuity of collective efforts to keep Rawalpindi a dengue-free city.
On the other side, the city’s hospitals have been provided with sufficient beds availability to deal with any outbreak, based on a conducive environment probably in the month of September.