In response to a request from the government of Pakistan through its High Commission in Colombo the Sri Lankan government will be assisting Pakistan’s fight against the dengue virus, by sending a 11 member expert team on September 13, 2011.

The Sri Lankan expert team of dengue eradication will be staying in Pakistan for 10-15 days and will be carrying out the needed assessment and training of the Pakistan officials. In addition, the expert team will also be carrying along the equipment and insecticides to tackle the out break.

Looking at the growing rate of dengue patients in the Punjab province of Pakistan, the High Commission of Pakistan in Colombo requested the Sri Lankan Government to provide trained personnel to visit Pakistan for assistance and training of Pakistani medical and paramedical staff to help combat the disease.

In recent weeks, dengue fever has rapidly spread in various parts of Pakistan, however, Punjab province is the worst hit. The first case of dengue fever in Pakistan was reported in 1994 in Karachi. After that this disease spread slowly and in 2006 there were large numbers of patients affected with dengue fever. Since then, this time it is one of the major outbreaks of the disease so far in which over 3000 cases are reported from the provincial capital Lahore alone.

For dengue eradication in Pakistan, public health officers are keen to learn from the experience of Sri Lanka. After a 10-year peak in 2009, the Sri Lankan government declared control of the vector-borne disease a national priority. (Source: Pakistan Observer)