Kishangarh residents fail to benefit from officials’ visits

Ritika Jha Palial

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23

Frequent announcements of “not to ignore flu-like symptoms” and daily surveys by UT officials in one of the closest residential areas to Sukhna Lake - Kishangarh - for the past one week have made little impact on residents, it seems.

A visit to the area today amid the ongoing surveillance by a team of the UT’s multi-purpose health workers (MPHW) revealed that residents accepted that officials had been visiting them frequently to ask about their health, but they had no idea that they had come to spread awareness on bird flu or its symptoms.

None of the residents were aware that they were at the maximum risk of exposure due to the proximity of their dwellings to the lake from where the first case of bird flu was confirmed in geese a week ago.

Even as 10 different teams of MPHWs, including two in one group, had visited 1,400 houses in the area at least thrice since December 19, the residents showed no curiosity in understanding the purpose of their frequent visits.

When asked whether anyone visited them earlier, Neeta Rani, a resident of the area, said: “Hamari sehat poochane aate rehte hain. Par inki baat samajh mein nahi aati. Angrezi ke shabd bolte hain bech bech mein. Hum anpadh log hain kahan samjh payenge” (These people have been asking for our wellbeing for the past couple of days. But I do not know the reason. I am not even aware of what they talk about. They use English words in between).

Seema Devi, another resident who runs a shop in the area, said: “We hear these announcements every day. But we thought that these are normal awareness drives, which they carry out every year for cleanliness. They speak very fast.”

The surveillance teams, meanwhile, have been maintaining the daily records of residents in the area and monitoring their condition to ensure that if anyone shows infection symptoms, he or she could be referred to a hospital.

GMSH-16 staff get training

Doctors at the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh, on Tuesday conducted a training for its staff. The doctors sensitised them to handle suspected flu patients and telephonic queries at the helpline - 102. UT Director Health Services Dr VK Gagneja has asked the PGIMER to send 4 doctors to run a 24-hour helpline on bird flu.

Animal Husbandry staff visit PGI Animal House

Following a request sent by the PGI Director, a team of the UT Animal Husbandry Department on Tuesday visited the Animal House in the institute to examine the birds. No suspected cases were found.