RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.23: Health Minister Banna Gupta today took a dose of filaria medicine to start a mass drug administration (MDA) programme to root out the vector-borne disease from 12 affected districts of Jharkhand.
Under the programme, which will conclude on August 27, as many as 1.78 crore people will be administered filarial medicines with the help of 71234 health workers under the supervision of 7123 supervisors in 12 affected districts including Giridih, Chatra, Dumka, East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum, Garhwa, Godda, Hazaribagh, Khunti, Lohardaga, Ranchi and Simdega.
Except for Simdega, only two medicines, DEC and albendazole, will be administered. In Simdega apart from two medicines, Ivermectin will also be administered, said the health minister speaking on the occasion.
The population of the affected district is 2.02 crore but the drugs will be administered to only 1.78crore. When asked about the same, a health department official said the medicines will not be administered to children below one year, pregnant and critically ill people.
State programme officer Dr S.N.Jha said that rapid response teams have been constituted to tackle any problem taking administration of medicines and direction has been given to conduct daily meetings on block level to ensure the quality of the programme.
Those present during the occasion included the mission director of National Health Mission Umashanker Singh. He expressed his commitment to root out the vector-borne disease from Jharkhand. He said direction has been given to follow Covid-19 protocol during the MDA programme.
Filariasis is caused by several round, coiled and thread-like parasitic worms belonging to the family filaridea. The disease is caused by the nematode worm, either Wuchereria bancrofti or Brugia malayi and transmitted by ubiquitous mosquito species Culex quinquefasciatus and Mansonia annulifera/M.uniformis respectively. The disease manifests often in bizarre swelling of legs, and hydrocele and is the cause of a great deal of social stigma.
