Residents seek steps to deal with dengue outbreak

MANSEHRA: Residents of Garhi Habibullah on Thursday complained of a shortage of medicines and diagnostic testing facilities to deal with the outbreak of dengue in the city and its suburbs.

“Town has experienced a big surge in dengue cases in recent days but only health facilities here could establish an isolation ward but no medicines are provided to patients,” Naseer Anwar, a local, told reporters in Garhi Habibullah.

A group of locals led by Anwar said that Garhi Habibullah central and its suburbs, Dam Kacha, Karnool and Kashtara areas have experienced a sudden surge in dengue cases in recent days and the civil hospital couldn’t effectively deal with the situation.

“Our town is situated at Kunhar Riverbank which is also one of the major reasons for the outbreak of dengue virus here but the local health facility is short of medicines and testing facilities to provide healthcare services to patients,” Anwar said.

He said that hospital management established an isolation ward but it was without all the facilities, medicines and testing services needed to counter the surge in cases.“The private diagnostic laboratories are also not equipped with high-tech testing facilities resulting in unreliable results being issued to patients to fleece the money creating panic in families and residents,” Anwar said. He said that most parts of the city and adjoining localities were also still without fumigation spray.