Punjab Health Minister chairs high-level review meeting

'Dengue/Malaria Free Village' campaign will be launched soon: Dr. Balbir Singh

Khas Khas, Chandigarh:

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Balbir Singh on Monday chaired a high-level meeting through video conferencing to review the preparedness for prevention and control of waterborne and bacterial diseases in the state. Waterborne diseases include diarrhoea, cholera and hepatitis-A, while bacterial diseases include malaria, dengue and chikungunya.

Terming disease prevention as a collective responsibility, the minister directed the officials to form district level inter-departmental coordination committees in collaboration with IMA members. He said that a WhatsApp group should be created at the district level where the concerned civil surgeon will post to update the concerned department about cases of diseases like fever, diarrhoea, cholera, dengue or malaria so that timely intervention can be taken to take appropriate preventive measures in the particular area from where these cases are coming.

The minister further said that in case of an outbreak of disease, the water supply agency should immediately identify where and why drinking water is getting contaminated and solve the problem as quickly as possible. He said that until the issue of water contamination is resolved, drinking water supply to the general public should be done from a different source so that such cases can be prevented from increasing further.

Taking serious notice of the defunct RO systems in the villages, the Minister directed the officials to get these ROs operational as soon as possible after the required repairs so that clean drinking water can be provided to the people. He said, “The help of the people is very necessary and important to prevent this infection caused by bacteria.” The Health Minister said that there is a great need to spread awareness in the society about the prevention of water and bacterial diseases.

Emphasizing the need to educate school children, he said that they can play an important role in preventing mosquito breeding around them by identifying mosquito larvae and making people around them aware about the identification of larvae. The minister also announced to start a 'Dengue/Malaria Free Village' campaign in the state, under which if any ASHA worker declares her village dengue/malaria free, she will be honored by the Health Department.

Dr Balbir Singh said that to prevent the spread of diseases caused by bacteria, simple efforts can be made to keep the surroundings clean and mosquito-free. Stagnant water should be checked and larval sites should be treated effectively. He said that the success of vector control programmes depends on people's participation and ownership.

The minister said that special dengue wards have been set up in government hospitals for proper management of dengue cases. 47 sentinel surveillance hospitals have been set up in the state for free testing of dengue, apart from this, free treatment of dengue patients is also being provided in all government hospitals. Staff of Aam Aadmi Clinics and Gram Sevaks of Panchayat Department are being trained to take preventive measures to stop the spread of water and bacterial diseases.

The Health Minister directed the Local Bodies Department to get fogging done regularly in the cities and towns and the schedule of fogging should be shared with the Health Department on future basis.

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