By IANS,
New Delhi : The government would start an “election type house to house” campaign to fight Japanese Encephalitis that has killed at least 560 people this year in Uttar Pradesh, Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi told the Lok Sabha Monday.
“Social problems needs social solutions. We will launch an election type special campaign for better hygiene and sanitation for (tackling) Japanese Encephalitis,” Trivedi said.
“I seek the support of parliamentarians for this,” Trivedi said.
“I myself will go to the region for this purpose. We (health ministry) are absolutely committed to fight the problem. We also need the support of NGOs, government departments to create awareness.”
According to the union health ministry, 23 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh are endemic to Japanese encephalitis.
Domestic pigs and wild birds are reservoirs of the Japanese encephalitis virus. The virus is transmitted by infective bites of female mosquitoes, mainly belonging to culex tritaeniorhynchus, culex vishnui and culex pseudovishnui group.
The disease gets its name as the virus was first detected in Japan.