Federal Government In Coordination With Provinces To Curb Dengue Outbreak

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Sep, 2019 ) :Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr. Zafar Mirza has said that Federal government was in coordination with provinces to curb dengue outbreak and concerted efforts were being made to check it.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Dr. Zafar Mirza said Dengue Control Operational Center has been set- up in Islamabad which would daily review the dengue related situation across the country review steps to control it.

He said two hotlines with contact numbers (051-9212601 and 9216890) would work round the clock and expert doctors would respond to the dengue related queries to general public.

The Special Assistant said there were 10,013 dengue patients at present in the country out of which 2,363 were in Punjab, 2,258 in Sindh, 1,814 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1,772 in Balochistan. In past, there had been double patients as compared to this figure but our whole concentration at present was to check its outbreak rather than doing politics.

During the last 48 hours, maximum patients suffering from dengue were identified and this number may increase in coming 7-10 days. It was our responsibility to suggest preventive measures to the people and special hotlines have been set up for the same, he said adding that 70 percent dengue patients in Punjab reported from Potohar region.

Dr. Zafar Iqbal Mirza said special study or research would be conducted in the coming days to find out why dengue spread out in this region. He said an Emergency Centre had been established at National Institute of Health (NIH) ten days before and the entire statistics, also available on NIH website, were being compiled there daily basis.

Keeping in view the possible increase in number of dengue patients, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister said owners of private hospitals in Islamabad were contacted who ensured to provide a total of 1000 beds in their hospitals in case of capacity issue in the government hospitals.

The treatment at these private hospitals would be free of cost, he said and thanked the management of private hospitals over this gesture.

Moreover, he said 16 Basic Health Units in Islamabad have been functional and trained doctors were providing treatment to dengue and other patients. He asked the people to visit these units for carrying out tests following which the medical staff would guide to visit nearest hospital in case of any issue with them.

He said that health department has been fumigating the most affected areas while federal government was in coordination with provincial governments to curb dengue outbreak and provide health facilities to dengue patients.

With possible increase in number of patients in the coming days, he said the situation would be in complete control till the end of this month.

To a question, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister said there was lack of rabies vaccine in the country. However, its production at NIH would be doubled in coming years. He lamented over non-production of around 900,000 doses in the country during previous tenures and assured that the incumbent government would take steps in this regard.

Responding to a query about increase in prices of medicines, Dr. Zafar Mirza said there was a price-fixing policy of medicines. During last May, prices of some medicines witnessed surge up-to 200-300 percent but their prices were brought down to 75 percent.

However, he said the government was in contact with the manufactures and prices of medicines would further decrease.