Prevailing dengue fears

The fear of the dengue virus is beginning to influence life as the most ferocious chills of winter have given way to spring in Punjab.

According to the media reports people started arriving at hospital and clinics, fearing dengue in major cities, particularly in Lahore.

Only handful patients are reportedly tested positive hitherto for the dengue virus in the provincial metropolis of Punjab.

However, people are not convinced, with some victims showing the classic symptoms of the virus that took hundreds of lives, in 2011.

According to a latest report, at least 29 patients have been tested positive in Karachi, the most populous city of the country. Experts have already issued warnings that Lahore could be affected even harder this year that last time with a possibly higher risk of infection of the disease.

A research revealed that there has also been a virus changing and taking on more dangerous form and the acquiring ability of the yellow-fever mosquito, which carries the virus, to breed on both clean and stagnant water.

May be it is too early to say how much of the fear is based on hoopla and how much on reality, but it is right time to both becalm and mobilizes the society.

In the initial phase, we should fill pools of stagnant water with sand, as it will help in reducing the risk of disease. The society itself should offer assistance to the government in clean-up drives.

Furthermore, the health authorities have issued WHO (World Health Organization) guidelines about diagnosis and treatment of the disease, binding the public-sector hospitals to strictly follow the guidepost.

One can hope that everything is being done as professionally as possible and, at larger stage, we do not find out that measures taken to make sure that the road map reached all concerned areas and regions. We will have to work with zeal and zest if we want to defeat the disease.

In order to create public awareness, strong steps will have to be taken, particularly by the media and the government.

We will not have to repeat the past mistakes and anticipate that the currently spreading warning will prove to be a false one.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=16265

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Mar 19 2012. Filed under Health, National, Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.