PESHAWAR: Health department has alerted district headquarters hospitals to speed up screening and testing of symptomatic patients and dedicate more beds to them after steep rise in dengue cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The province has so far recorded 851 dengue infections including 29 during the last 24 hours with two deaths recorded in Nowshera district. Health department has asked hospitals to further strengthen their isolation wards and screening in view of surge in dengue cases caused by recent rains that created pools of stagnant water, which served as breeding spots for mosquitoes. “We have already established isolation wards in district headquarters hospitals and medical teaching institutions for better management of patients. In case of outbreak, hospitals have been asked to stay ready to cope with the situation,” Dr Irshad Roghani, the director of public health at directorate general health services of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told Dawn. Official hopes the infection will decline as soon as temperature dips He said that 15 patients were brought to hospitals on Sunday. He said that they were being treated symptomatically but in case of upswing in cases, they had the capacity to allocate more beds to them at hospitals. “We have 349 active cases. It means that they can become source of infecting more people but we have asked patients to avoid mosquito bites so that spread of the vector-borne ailment could be prevented,” said Dr Irshad. He said that so far there were 125 hospitalised patients but owing to the latest spike in dengue cases, they were taking precautionary measures to ensure availability of space in hospitals. He said that dengue cases would continue to increase till October and would decline as soon as the temperature dipped. “We cannot take risks and the department in collaboration with other line departments have escalated collaboration to prevent the infection till temperature gets down and the population of mosquitoes’ decreases,” he added. Dr Irshad said that 502 patients had been recovered fully while the active cases would remain in isolation because they could be source of spreading the virus. “Alongside screening and management of patients, we have strengthened case response and our staffers visit the houses of infected patients where they screen the close contacts of patients,” he said. Peshawar continues to remain epicentre of the virus with registering total 229 cases including 177 in September, followed by Abbottabad with 114 cases, Hangu 81, Mansehra 80, Nowshera 79, Charsadda 55, Kohat 41, Haripur 24, Mardan 20, Bannu 19 and Bajaur with 18 cases. The disease is widespread as Swabi, Swat and Lower Dir have also confirmed 17, 12 and 13 cases, respectively. The public health director said that anti-dengue activities would remain in progress as they expected more cases till October 15. However, he hoped that with the ongoing cooperation of other department, the stagnant water pools would be eliminated that would decrease the population of mosquitoes. “Our teams have been visiting hotspots in different districts to scale up public awareness and convince people to avoid accumulation of water in neighbourhoods,” he said. The main areas of concerns are Sheikh Yaseen Town, Nasir Bagh Road, Mohallah Charando in Tehkal Payyan, Mian Khan Garhi, Badizai, Garden town, Kalma Chowk, Mahallah Miangan in Achini Bala, Khushal Road, Achini Ring Road, Pawaka Tango Adda, Sufaid Dheri and Academy Town in Peshawar and some places in Mansehra and Kohat districts. “However, activities continue across the province with special focus on the hotspots in three districts,” said Dr Irshad.