‘Dastak’ against infectious diseases starts

Varanasi: To check the spread of communicable diseases, ‘Dastak Abhiyan’ has commenced in the district on Thursday.
Under the campaign, which will continue for the next 15 days, the front-line workers will go door-to-door to identify the patients of infectious diseases like dengue, malaria, TB and will also make people aware about the importance of cleanliness and prevention of vector-borne diseases.
The chief medical officer Dr Sandeep Choudhary said that as a part of the campaign being run to control communicable diseases from October 1, proper arrangements are being made to clean urban and rural areas of the district and drainage around hand pumps.
The district malaria officer, Sharad Chand Pandey said that all preparations have been completed for the campaign. During the drive, all 2,557 ASHA workers of rural and urban areas will visit about 7.46 lakh houses in the district to identify patients and also make them aware of prevention and treatment of communicable diseases. The information of the identified patients will be given to Block PHC/CHC for their treatment.
The officer said that 15 basic health workers have been deployed for fever and vector surveillance. For the supervision work, 11 Malaria inspectors and 16 supervisors have been engaged, and 15 workers have been engaged by DUDA for daily spraying. Besides, seven supervisors have been deployed for random larva testing in the urban areas. Each ASHA worker has been given 10 Malaria/Dengue rapid test kits at each PHC and CHC. The rapid response and vector surveillance teams and fever help desks have been constituted at every PHC and CHC. tnn