Marshalling smartphones, gravediggers to fight dengue in Pakistan

For the IRIN News Agency:

LAHORE, 10 May 2013 (IRIN) – On the frontline in the fight against dengue fever in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, the authorities have a sharp eye for spare car tyres.

“When the police show up, we will throw all these tyres into the basement,” said Rohil Ayub, 18, who runs a downtown repair shop.

“The police fine us a lot, thousands of rupees every time,” he said.

Every few days, police inspectors fine anyone who leaves tyres outside – a nuisance, complain the owners of the hundreds of repair shops in the area but essential, health experts say, for combating dengue, a potentially fatal haemorrhagic fever without a vaccine.

Read more here.