Authorities
are struggling to contain dengue fever which has killed at least eight people,
officials said on Wednesday.
Around
4,400 cases of the mosquito-borne disease have been reported in the central
Punjab province over the past two months, forcing the provincial government on
Tuesday to close down schools for 10 days.
Most of
the cases have been reported in Lahore, the provincial capital, where about
2,950 people tested positive.
"So
far, eight people have died of dengue. We are trying our best to control this
epidemic," Jehanzeb Khan, secretary of the provincial Health Department,
said.
He added
that lack of fumigation by plant protection department of the Ministry of
Health and Agriculture also added to the spread of dengue in Punjab. Now the
government had launched a fumigation drive to kill mosquitoes.
The
government has been criticized by the media for dragging its feet on the dengue
issue.
"The
response to dengue has been ad hoc, ex post, and therefore reactionary at
best," The News daily said in its editorial.
