KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah Monday directed health department to take necessary measures to provide dengue kits to Tharparkar and Karachi so that disease could be diagnosed and cured in time.
This he said while presiding over a meeting on health services here at the CM House, said a statement.
The meeting was attended by Minister Health Dr Sikandar Mendhro, Secretary Health Usman Chachar and other senior officers of health department.
Briefing the CM Sindh, Secretary Health Usman Chachar said that1713 cases of dengue had been reported in province, out of them 1510cases from Karachi with three deaths, 68 in Hyderabad and 84 in Tharparkar.
Minister Health Dr Sikandar Mendhro said that in Thar, presently88 cases had been reported, out of them 84 were treated in Hyderabad and sent back home. Only four patients were in LMC Hyderabad, he added.
Giving reasons of spread of dengue in Tharparkar, Dr Sinkandar Mendhro said that people in Thar store water in tanks and earthen pots.
The dengue mosquito lied eggs in that clean and stored water which they [villagers] used for drinking and other purposes.
Dengue had been found in Karachi and mostly the people of Thar working in Karachi visited their villages frequently, he pointed out.
They also carry dengue infection back to their villages.
The Health Minister said that Dengue Control Programme Manager, Dr Masood Solanagi had taken the sample of water stored in different areas of Karachi, including of zoo and found millions of larva (dengue seedlings).
They killed them by pouring chemical into their tanks and now it is safe to some extent.
Secretary health told the chief minister that the Dengue Control Programme administration had purchased 17,000 kits and had started distributing them in the affected areas.
Dengue was not a fatal disease, he added.
A normal person has 300,000 platelets.
The CM Sindh directed health department to take necessary measure to provide timely treatment to the dengue patients and also issued directives to commissioner and local bodies for extensive fumigation in Karachi, Hyderabad and Thar.
