Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi has directed officials of the Health department to prepare a comprehensive action plan for controlling the spread of vector-borne diseases.
The Chief Secretary wanted special care to be taken in preparing the action plan to check diseases like malaria, chikungunya, dengue, filaria and Japanese Encephalitis. The decision comes in the wake of the direction given by the High Court on Thursday, while dealing with a writ petition filed in this regard, to take immediate measures to check the spread of communicable diseases.
Dr. Joshi convened a meeting of the senior officials on Friday to review the situation. In addition to the Health department officials headed by Special Chief Secretary A. Shanti Kumari, Union Health officials including National Vector Borne Disease Control deputy director Suman Lata, and Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme consultant Kaushal Kumar participated in the meeting.
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The Chief Secretary thanked the Union Government for deputing a team of senior officials to discuss the steps to check the spread of diseases immediately at the request of the State Government.
He directed the officials to take special measures to control mosquito menace while the focus should be on checking the breeding of mosquitoes.
Steps should be taken to procure equipment necessary for conducting fogging, while district programme officers should be sensitised to educate people on the facilities like medical tests available in their areas.
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The departments concerned should work in effective coordination to take up relief works in the areas where prevalence of communicable diseases was noticed.