DENGUE

So while we're scrambling to get some kind of control on Aedes aegypti, some pertinent questions remain unanswered and important issues remain unaddressed.

1. Does our medical community really lack the intelligence and ability to understand the extent and severity of Dengue? Did we really have to bring in the Sri Lankans to tell us to clean up our piles of garbage?

2. Speaking of the abilities of our medical community, has anyone out there thought of collecting the data that is spilling over right into our laps? Is there any doctor out there visionary enough to understand that if the data is collected now it will prove beneficial for the next time?

3. The Khadim-e-Aala isn't much of a Khadim when he ends up running around AFTER the fact!


We needed to be in control of the situation BEFORE it happened. This wasn't the first year that Dengue occurred. We've been facing it for the past few years.....one would think that successive years would have taught us by now to be better equipped and prepared. However, only the opposite has taken place: despite having to face the Dengue fever each year, we are still ill-equipped and hardly prepared at all.


Running around now after a rising toll of deaths and trying to get a grip on the situation is proving to be a little too late. Even ONE death should have gotten us on our feet. And by that I mean, all the efforts that Khadim-e-Aala is putting in now should have been started long ago. In fact, even that ONE death should not have been allowed to occur. Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is not a fatal illness and mortality is always less than 1%, according to WHO and CDC. Meaning, that if medical professionals are well-equipped and properly trained, and consequently patients are well-managed and promptly taken care of, then fatality is never a consequence.

What is worse, is that in the past few years this country has seen a volcanic surge in the establishment of medical colleges, with admissions going sky-high. We have formed an army of doctors, sans quality medical education, but nonetheless an entire force of doctors stands before us. Yet, a correlated rise in hospitals has not occurred. The ratio is totally off. Hence, the league of doctors graduating from these private medical colleges has no real future in front of them because there are no job opportunities, unless of course they have the means and choose to go abroad. But, if they stay here, then there is essentially nothing for them. And, as a result if they have no place to go to work then the rising population has fewer doctors who can attend to them, therefore inevitably the load falls upon the existing doctors and existing health facilities---which by now are super-saturated causing the entire healthcare system to choke. Primary and secondary level health facilities receive a bare minimum of patients, while the entire patient turn-over rate falls upon the tertiary level hospitals. Even in the present Dengue emergency, the tertiary care hospitals are bearing the brunt of it all, while secondary and primary care facilities remain practically empty.

I'm not sure who's behind all these health policies. I recently read that Dr. Fazeela Abbasi, the famous dermatologist, was appointed by Zardari as DG Health Projects. Then again, most of the officials in most of the top positions of our country are all hand-picked by Zardari. Yeah sure, she's got some good credentials and is travelling the world ever since her paper was accepted by European Academy of Dermatology, but the real question is how much knowledge of health policy do she have?? Just being a doctor doesn't qualify you for every medically related field! If this was the case, there wouldn't be a degree in public health! Her own website claims that she's "....played a significant role in strengthening the health system in the Federal Ministry of health...." Umm, where is the "strengthened health system"?? Can you show me?....Anyone?


1. Bottomline is, our country lacks substantial health policy and infrastructure.

2. Our goverment is the first and foremost to blame for this, because this mess begins with them: if the government woud allocate a sensible budget towards healthcare, only then will the healthcare policies and planning come into implementation. Without proper financial means, all the planning in the world is useless.

3. We have a total failure of developing individuals among the medical community who can bring in the vision to improve our healthcare. In short, we lack visionary doctors.

4. We don't need an army of doctors. If it were up to me, I'd stop with immediate effect all admissions into medical colleges around the country, and instead work on improving the quality of medical education and training of the existing doctors.

5. Dengue in and of itself is not an emergency. Rather, it's our lack of preparedness that has pushed us into this position. We are still capable of putting a dent into the rising cases of Dengue fever.

6. Mainly we need to work on our general cleanliness around the city and be proactive on all the preventive measures, because that is the only way we can repel Aedes aegypti.d  significant role in strengthening the health system in the Federal Ministry of health