Jamshedpur, Sep 7: A three-member team of health experts from Ranchi is carrying out inspections in the steel city and adjoining rural areas for Japanese Encephalitis cases.
Led by Dr SN Jha, state programme officer for Vector Borne Diseases, the team inspected Parsudih area of the city suburbs, Galudih, Musabani and Potka blocks in Ghatsila sub-division of the district.
“The rise in recent cases of Japanese Encephalitis is a matter of great concern. We are here to carry out control measures for the Japanese Encephalitis which is spreading in the district. The vector-borne disease has already claimed a life in the Ghatsila sub-division recently and has affected seven persons across the district,” said Jha.
A 38-year-old woman, recently died because of Japanese Encephalitis at Kalchitti village in Galudih. Apart from the death caused by the Japanese Encephalitis, seven persons have been affected by the disease. Cases have been reported from the Jamshedpur block, two from the Potka block and one each from the Ghatsila and Musabani block.
Concerned over the situation, the East Singhbhum district health department has decided to embark on the outdoor awareness campaigns. As part of the programme, huge hoarding educating the people will be placed at strategic locations in the city.
The hoardings informing about symptoms of dengue like high fever and pain in body joints and simple preventive methods which can be undertaken to prevent breeding of vector carrying dengue virus would soon come up in the city.
“We would be carrying out awareness in Hindi and Santhali to help spread information. We need to understand that mosquitoes that carry the virus of dengue do not come from outside, rather they generate from the household things like flower-pots, cooler water, rejected tyres kept on the roof top or in the corner of the garden. So we must educate people that there is no such place where water is stagnant for some time,” said district civil surgeon AK Lal.
Considering the high number of Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases detected in the city so far the department has also decided to take out hoardings specifically for JE.
JE is a vector borne viral disease transmitted by mosquitoes after feeding on infected animals such as domestic pigs and wild birds in the agriculture field. The preventive method for this disease is minimizing accumulation of stagnant water in cultivable fields and removing stagnant water in surface drainage channels around houses and sheds.
Till now, the integrated diseases unit was engaged in monitoring the spraying of anti-larvicidal, bleaching powder and DDT and encouraging people to destroy potential waterlogging points. However, hoarding as a form of awareness is being done for the first time in the district by IDSP.