By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: On the National Filaria Day on November 11 about one crore filarial patients would be made to consume 4.5 crore DEC tablets in Madhya Pradesh.
This was informed at a meeting of the State Task Force constituted in connection with observance of National Filaria Day here on Saturday. It was clarified at the meeting that children below two years of age, expectant mothers and persons afflicted by serious diseases should not consume this tablet. The Chief Secretary Rakesh Sahni presided over the meeting, an official Press release said.
It may be mentioned here that an action plan has been formulated for effective implementation of the National Filaria Programme. Eleven districts of Madhya Pradesh are affected by this disease. These include Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Satna, Panna, Datia, Katni, Damoh, Chhindwara, Rewa, Umaria and Sagar.
The meeting was informed that one crore 52 lakh 11 thousand population in these districts is affected by this diseases. This medicine was administered to one crore 36 lakh 48 thousand people in the year 2007. The number of cases of filaria is 2941 in these 11 districts. Under the action plan training would be imparted for cleansing of the affected limbs of the patients and general hygiene. As many as 803 hydrosol operations have been performed in the state.
It was further informed that arrangements for 12347 supervisors and 61,733 medicine distributors are being made for distribution of DEC tablets among the patients on National Filaria Day. After distribution of the medicine at different centres the workers would go from door to door administering the dose to the patients. The DEC tablets would be administered at the ashram schools and schools of tribal welfare department in the 11 affected villages. ([email protected])