Health strategy contains potential disease outbreak in Punjab's flood-affected villages: Minister

Chandigarh, Sep 20 (PTI) The multi-pronged 'Special Health Campaign' launched by the state government to combat flood-borne diseases in 2,303 flood-affected villages has successfully contained potential disease outbreaks, Punjab Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh said here on Saturday.

Reviewing reports from the field, the minister expressed satisfaction that the massive mobilisation of the state's medical fraternity, ”including government doctors, private volunteers, Ayurveda medical officers, and MBBS interns has successfully provided a robust health shield to the citizens in the flood-ravaged areas.

Singh said that the campaign's three-core component strategy is functioning as planned, with the health camps providing critical curative care, door-to-door visits ensuring preventive care reaches every household, and the rigorous fumigation protecting the community from outbreaks.

Sharing data of preventive measures undertaken on Saturday, the minister said medical teams have covered 1,118 villages. They conducted 20,668 outpatient department (OPD) consultations in camps treating 2,324 fever cases, 505 diarrhoea cases, 2,606 skin infections, and 1,133 eye infections, he added.

Concurrently, more than 20,000 ASHA workers have been instrumental in door-to-door visits, covering 1,471 villages and 62,021 households, he said.

He further said that they have distributed 20,276 essential health kits and proactively screened residents, identifying 1,105 fever cases and diagnosing zero malaria case.

Similarly, intensive vector-control drives have covered 1,554 villages with teams checking 63,233 households for mosquito breeding, finding and destroying breeding sites in 969 houses.

As a critical preventive measure, preemptive larvicide was sprayed at 19,303 houses, and extensive fumigation was carried out in 955 villages to break the disease transmission cycle.

"This data demonstrates that our preventive strategy is working. While treating the sick is crucial, our primary objective has been to stop diseases before they start," Singh said. PTI CHS OZ OZ