Number of dengue cases rises to 48

Oman Sunday 13/January/2019 22:01 PM
By: Times News Service
Number of dengue cases rises to 48

Muscat: Cases of locally transmitted dengue fever have risen to 48, according to the Director General of Disease Control and Surveillance at the Ministry of Health.
“So far, there have been 48 recorded cases of dengue fever caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and all of the cases are from the wilayat of Seeb,” said Dr Saif Al Abri, Director General of Disease Control.
Also read: Drive against dengue to cover more areas
Since the launch of the Muscat campaign for the elimination of Aedes aegypti on January 8, more than 8,500 facilities, including houses, farms and shops were visited.
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Al Abri, who is also the Chairman of the Central Committee for the Preparation and Implementation of the campaign, added that overall, the responses from the owners have been positive, despite the challenges organisers faced with closed buildings.
Parallel to the increase in the number of cases and efforts by the government, the volunteers have also increased by 200 since the launch of the campaign.
Al Abri said that the task force of the campaign rose to 1,200 people, including doctors, nurses, health educators, health supervisors from the Ministry of Health, field supervisors, spraying workers from Muscat Municipality, the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, as well as members of the Shura and Municipal council representatives, in addition to volunteers.
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The ministry announced that tomorrow the drive would move to the wilayat of Bausher and then to the wilayats of Muttrah and Muscat. The two-week campaign is being organised by the Ministry of Health and the Muscat Municipality.
When the first case was discovered in November, the authorities at the Ministry of Health and Muscat Municipality, among other government bodies, carried out an inspection of the Aedes aegypti mosquito to investigate the possibility of local transmission of the dengue fever virus. However, it was revealed that the mosquito had spread further than expected.
During the launch of the campaign, Dr Ali Al Saidi, Minister of Health, said he was “optimistic” that this campaign would be successful due to “previous experiences we had with other campaigns when nearly all the people were helpful and cooperative”.