Yogi govt to kick off major drive to control communicable diseases from April 1

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): The Yogi government in UP will start a special campaign from April 1 to control communicable diseases, in addition to the ‘Dastak’ campaign which will run from April 17 to 30, a release said.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has given necessary instructions in this regard at a high-level meeting, officials from the Chief Minister’s office said.

“He has directed the Chief Secretary to hold a coordination meeting with the Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of the concerned departments and take stock of the preparations for the Communicable Disease Control Campaign. He has also directed them to engage the masses to take this important campaign forward. The Communicable Disease Control Campaign is run in three phases every year. This year the first phase of the campaign will be ending on April 30,” the statement added.

It informed that this campaign will be launched in all 75 districts of the state against infectious diseases like encephalitis, dengue, chikungunya, malaria and kala-azar. “The Government is also gearing up to tackle the challenge of infectious and water-borne diseases through the ‘Dastak’ drive. Preparations have started for both campaigns to be run under the leadership of the Health Department. An action plan has been prepared for these campaigns to be run in coordination with 12 departments. Various activities will be conducted under this campaign to be run simultaneously in urban and rural areas,” it informed.

“Under the Communicable Disease Control Campaign, attention will be paid to cleanliness and water logging in rural and urban areas. Activities related to awareness for the prevention of diseases will be organized in schools. Along with this, activities will be conducted to control mosquitoes, rats, moles etc. Besides, people will be made aware of setting up animal enclosures and pig enclosures away from the population and maintaining cleanliness,” it added.

Under the Dastak campaign, medical teams will go door-to-door to identify patients suffering from infectious diseases. The team will include Asha workers along with health workers. With the help of the team, the patients will be identified and given medicines and admitted to the hospital, if necessary. Information about malnourished children will also be collected during the Dastak campaign. Apart from this, patients with symptoms of TB will be searched and examined. Fogging will be done in the identified areas on the basis of a door-to-door survey of high-risk areas during the Dastak campaign, it added.

“Due to the special efforts made by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) have been effectively controlled in the state. Campaigns are being run from time to time to prevent diseases caused by viruses and bacteria,” it informed.

This campaign is conducted every year in collaboration with other departments including Medical and Health, Basic Education, Secondary Education, Higher Education, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Agriculture and Irrigation and Animal Husbandry Department.