TEZPUR, June 20 - In view of the outbreak of encephalitis in Bihar which has claimed over 100 people, Deputy Commissioner Narsing Pawar, on Wednesday directed all Health department officials and other line departments concerned to work concertedly to prevent any possible outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) during the coming monsoon season. He also directed the officials to be fully prepared to tackle such an outbreak, if any, in the district, considering the fact that Sonitpur was one of the worst hit last year.
A meeting of the District Task Force on AES/ JE was held at the conference hall of the Deputy Commissioner�s office here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner. The meeting was organized by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Sonitpur in collaboration with the NVBDCP, Sonitpur.
Joint Director, Health Services, Dr Krishna Kemprai explained the objectives of the meeting while Dr SP Bordoloi gave a briefing about the activities carried out by the DTF so far.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Commissioner Narsing Pawar said since Sonitpur was a vulnerable district, along with stepping up awareness drives through IEC activities there is the need to take up advanced precautionary measures immediately to prevent the disease from taking an epidemic form.
He directed the Health department officials to identify vulnerable pockets and by analysing the data of occurrence in previous years, devise a strategy to tackle the disease accordingly. He also stressed on the need to put in joint and coordinated efforts of various departments concerned and share data about various steps taken up in this regard with the Health department.
The Deputy Commissioner also stressed on the need to carry out more awareness activities at the block level so as to improve early reporting of fever cases by ground level health workers and achieve 100% during routine immunisation.
The role of various line departments such as veterinary, social welfare, agriculture, public health engineering, education and forest departments that are part of the district task force was also discussed in detail during the meeting.
Moreover, the Additional Deputy Commissioner KK Sharma, Superintendent, KCH, Dr Rini Duarah, Assisstant Commissioner, Arpit Upadhyay and other senior Health department officials were present in the meeting.
The monthly review meeting of the District Health Society was also held on Wednesday. Issues related to implementation of various schemes such as Ayushman Bharat � Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, Atal Amrit Abhiyaan, Health and Wellness Centres, were discussed during the course of the meeting. The Wage Compensation Scheme for pregnant women of tea gardens was also discussed.
