LAHORE - Special Assistant to Chief Minister Punjab on Health Kh Salman Rafique has said that solid measures taken by the government departments and public awareness campaign through print and electronic media have yielded positive results and dengue situation is fully under control.
Chairing a cabinet committee meeting to review the measures taken by different departments for dengue prevention and control, here on Wednesday, he said that so far only two confirmed dengue cases had been reported in Lahore and both the patients have recovered. Besides elected representatives from Lahore, Commissioner Lahore, Secretaries and Additional Secretaries of Health, Local Government, Information and Culture, Auqaf, Labour, Social Welfare, Higher Education, Schools Education, Cooperative, Forestry and Fisheries, Environment and police departments attended the meeting. Senior officers of Special Branch, Punjab Information Technology Board, WASA and Lahore Waste Management Company were also present in the meeting.  Briefing the participants, Secretary Health Arif Nadeem said that 85 suspected dengue cases have so far been reported from the province and out of those 40 have been reported from Lahore.
He further informed that during special door to door dengue surveillance campaign in Union Council-38 of Wahga Town, the teams comprising of government officials and volunteers visited 40196 houses to detect dengue larvae and only 13 houses were found positive and the larva detected in these houses was eliminated mechanically.
The meeting was informed that special campaign for de-silting of sewer lines in Walled City and drains was underway. Moreover, cleanliness of plots and lifting of garbage from different areas of the city was carried out by LWMC. Commissioner Lahore Jawad Rafique Malik said that the main cause of chocked sewerage pipes and drains was due to plastic shopping bags. Mrs Shaista Pervaiz Malik informed that registration and training of volunteers was also continuing. A detailed briefing was given by the Secretaries / Additional Secretaries of Higher Education, Auqaf, Fisheries, Labour, Social Welfare, Punjab Information Technology Board, Environment, Food and other departments regarding the measures taken for dengue control.