Give Statistics of Dengue Outbreak in Rawalpindi/ Islamabad for Last Five Years?

Q-1 Give statistics of dengue outbreak in Rawalpindi/ Islamabad for last five years?

(The News Qasim, 2015)

Q-2 Being Manager takes 5 major operational initiatives to fight this situation using contemporary Information & Communication Technologies.

Five major operational initiatives to fight Dengue are as follows:

1.         Mobile App: Dengue can be controlled by creating awareness through mobile apps.

a)- This app may provide alerts of areas severely affected by the dengue attacks.

b)- This app will create special awareness to fight against dengue.

c)- Tools to prevent dengue from spreading  at your own local area.

Biggest example of such app is MOBUZZ which is used in Sri Lanka to avoid fatal diseases from spreading. Similarly MEEDS is another example of similar software. (Scott, 2013)

2.        Instant Dengue Detector:  Introducing devices or gadgets at every door step which can instantly detect dengue from the human body from the person’s DNA using his blood or even laser technology for similar purpose. Example of a similar technology is Nanomal DNA Analyzer.

3.        Cloud based source: Cloud based source should be created where all the remedies against dengue and awareness is provided and access to it is allowed to every individual. People will be welcomed to share remedies to overcome dengue and share the statistics of other diseases spreading at their local region. (Samdani, n.d.)

4.        Mosquito Identifier: A device should be installed in houses which identify the possibilities of getting hit by dengue. Growth of mosquitoes and other fatal diseases shall be indicated by it to alert the house owners of diseases spreading within their house of which they are unaware.  (Scott, 2013)

5.        Water Reserves purifier: Installing equipment or device at water reservoirs and tanks to maintain the balance of pure water and give alerts for imbalance in water to minimize the risk of dengue growing at local ponds. “Cree Water Purifier” is one of the examples of such devices. (John Olsen)

Q-3 Propose a sustainable management plan with at least 5 major steps discussing in detail, to mitigate the outbreak in future?

1. The most effective way to eradicate or at least decrease the dengue outbreak in the future is to decrease the mosquito Aedes aegypti population. The mosquito lays her eggs in stagnant water, and having containers full of water around the house carry the risk of being a home to the dengue mosquito. Therefore, in order to reduce the water lying around in containers, the first initiative to be taken should be water systems having a direct route to the households. This would eradicate the people’s need to store water in containers. (Controlling dengue outbreaks, 2011)
2. Public awareness programs should be organized so as to alert the people of what they are up against and also to demonstrate to people the steps that can be taken on a personal level to avoid the virus. Moreover, such programs can also stress the severity of the dengue fever as most people in rural areas or uneducated ones tend to take the dengue disease lightly and do not feel any serious measures should be taken to heal the infected person.
3. A research and development team should be organized, that identifies the most affected areas in the country and also the areas that are most likely to be the next home to the dengue mosquito. The areas should then be sprayed according to the level of severity.
4. An inventory management team should be formed that would analyze in what amount the pesticides will be needed, when are they likely to run out and when they should be re ordered. This would help ensure that there gap in the spraying schedule, as it might raise the chances of an outbreak. (Disease surveillance and outbreak prevention and control, 2013)
5. Research should also be carried out to determine where the disease originated from and taking measures to ensure that the virus does not enter the country again, by that source at least. While, so many efforts are being put in to eradicate the dengue that exists in the country, the efforts and resources would be wasted if more and more dengue mosquitoes are entering the country.