KARACHI: Caretaker Chief Minister Sindh Justice (Retd.) Maqbool Baqir, while taking notice of increasing malaria cases across the province here on Sunday, directed the Health Department and Local Government (LG) Department to take necessary measures to control the disease in a week.
He said that most of the cases were being reported from Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur divisions.
The caretaker CM directed the Health Department to launch a campaign against the elimination of malaria. Baqar also directed to make arrangements for the availability of malaria drugs and wards in all government hospitals.
He said that the LG department should start spraying mosquito killers in their respective areas.
He further said that the Solid Waste Management Board should improve sanitation.
Official figures showed that 286,317 cases of high fever were reported at health facilities in the province this month.
Of them, 64,519 patients tested positive for malaria — an increase of 31 per cent as compared to last month, which saw 49,112 cases.
Most of these cases, according to the official data, are reported in Hyderabad division (31,891) followed by Mirpurkhas division (18,553), Larkana division (8,476), Sukkur division (2,595), Shaheed Benaziarabad (2,530) and Karachi division (474).
The most affected districts were Thatta (10,182) followed by Mirpurkhas (9,621), Umarkot (6,195), Hyderabad (6,531), Larkana (4,512), Dadu (3,188), Shikarpur (2,000) Jamshoro (2,242) Badin (4,399), Sujawal (2,681), Tando Allah Yar (1,202) and Tharparkar (2,737).
Official figures show that there has been a gradual increase in malaria cases over the months and the province has reported 247,799 malaria cases from January till August.
