Team Herald
VALPOI: An advocacy programme on Kyasanur forest disease (KFD) and vector borne disease was held at Community Health Centre, Valpoi to initiate collective measures to effectively deal with and prevent the spread of disease in Sattari.
Explaining about the disease, Medical Officer Dr Abhijit Wadkar said, “The KFD cases will keep coming, but the collective efforts of all the departments will help us to control the epidemic.”
He further said that when villagers find a dead monkey, they should not touch it, but should inform the Forest Department immediately or call at call centre at Valpoi Mamlatdar Office.
“Once a case of monkey death is reported, the Forest Department should dispose it by using all safety measures,” he said.
He further said that since last few years there is a decrease in number of positive cases of KFD in Sattari, this, he said, could be due to affective advocacy programme and vaccination against KFD.
“In the first season, when KFD was detected, around 30 cases were found positive. In 2016, 287 cases were positive in 2017, 57 cases and in 2018, 17 cases were positive,” he said.
Dr Sankesh Fadte, nodal officer for national vector borne disease control programme, gave session on malaria and dengue. He said that every fever should be properly investigated and if anyone gets fever, then, he should report to the hospital.
“Till now we have 23 malaria and 9 dengue patients,” he said.
On preventing spread of vector borne diseases, and KFD, Deputy Collector Mangaldas Gaonkar said that awareness programmes needs to be held at panchayat and municipality levels to educate the public on the steps to be taken to prevent breeding of mosquitoes and other measures to eradicate all sources of the diseases.
Discussing on the precautionary measures to be taken in the area, Gaonkar sought to know what action has been taken regarding cleanliness of the town gutters and drains. He directed all the departments to work united to prevent dengue outbreak in the State.
Health Officer Dr Gajanan Naik said, “The purpose of this meeting is to seek help from all departments to fight against KFD and vector borne disease.”
