By IANS,
Lucknow : The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has urged the rural population of Uttar Pradesh to call its toll free number 1075 in case of an epidemic outbreak, officials informed Wednesday.
The service is offered free in the state by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
The calls are attended by the central alert centre of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) located in Delhi.
“The objective of IDSP is to control the spread of an epidemic and prevent deaths caused by it. Any person can make a call from any village of the state and inform the centre about the outbreak,” Dr. Murtaza of NRHM told IANS.
The centre will, in turn, forward the information to the health directorate of the state which will subsequently forward it to the chief medical officer (CMO) of the district concerned, he added.
“The CMO, with the help of the nearest health centre, will administer medical aid in the affected area and will also send a detailed report to the IDSP once the situation is under control,” added Murtaza.
The service is functional since long but its utility came to light only after the state received heavy rains this year.
“After the heavy rains and floods, mostly in the rural parts of the state, we decided to spread awareness about the facility and we are receiving a lot of genuine information,” a health directorate official claimed.
Toll free calls can be made on this number from any BSNL mobile or landline phone, he added.