Awareness on prevention of malaria, dengue

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 28

A mass awareness campaign for prevention of dengue, malaria and chikungunya was flagged off by Patiala Civil Surgeon Balwinder Singh from Ranjit Nagar at 8 am. This has been one of the highly-affected areas for the past few years. Similar activities were held in all high-risk populated areas in all six rural blocks of Shutrana, Dudhan Sadhan, Harpalpur, Kalo Majra, Bhadson and Kauli and four urban blocks of Patiala, Nabha, Rajpura and Samana.

He said micro plan of urban and rural was prepared in which 300 teams were made consisting of medical officer, auxiliary nursing staff, asha workers, aanganwari workers, multipurpose health male workers, nursing students and supported by  generation welfare NGOs, representative from IMA and peer leaders.

He said this was the first-of-its-kind campaign planned by the department same as the pulse polio campaign in which door-to-door visit by workers would be done in all vulnerable areas in a single day. The workers would impart awareness among people about emptying and cleaning their coolers, pots, containers etc. on every Friday to prevent breeding of mosquitoes.

District epidemiologist Gurmeet Singh said a total of 33,207 houses were visited in high-risk areas and 25,350 pamphlets distributed.

He said dengue, malaria and chikungunya mosquitoes needed fresh and stagnant water for laying eggs and these places were commonly found inside our houses not in sewage, dirty water and garbage.

Dr Manjeet Singh, SMO, Tripri, said due to mass awareness camp organised by the Health Department in Bishan Nagar, Sundar Nagar and Pandit Din Dyal Upadayay Colony in 2015, a very few cases were reported from these areas in 2016, so this kind of awareness would help to prevent diseases like chikungunya and dengue.