Dengue larvae underreporting

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education (SH&ME) Khwaja Salman Rafique has directed the officers concerned to accelerate the dengue surveillance activities and the gaps in the micro-planning level should be removed. He said the meetings of Town Emergency Response Committees (TERC) should be made effective and the officers of all the departments at town level should ensure their presence in the meetings.

He stated this while chairing a meeting of Provincial Cabinet Committee on Dengue in the committee room of Civil Secretariat on Monday, according to a handout issued here. Besides, elected public representative, senior officers of all the departments concerned attended the meeting, while the commissioners/deputy commissioners and the officers of health department from other divisions/districts also participated in the proceedings of the meeting through a video link. They apprised the minister of the ongoing anti-dengue activities in their respective districts.

Similarly, she informed that some hospitals are not reporting suspected dengue patients, although thousands of patients are visiting their Out-Patients Department (OPD) on daily basis. Kh Salman Rafique expressed his displeasure over the under-reporting districts and directed them to improve their performance. He also directed the dengue expert advisory group to contact the low reporting hospitals of suspect dengue cases and provide technical guidance to such hospitals for removing the gap in the reporting of suspect dengue cases.