Involve civic bodies for control of vector-borne disease:Nadda

The Centre today asked the states to involve field-level workers, municipal corporations and municipalities for effective control and prevention of vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria and chinkungunya.
Union Health minister J P Nadda, in a high-level review meeting on prevention and control of vector-borne diseases, also asked all the stakeholders to begin rigorous awareness campaigns about the preventive steps to be taken by the people in their communities.
"Awareness is the key in controlling the vector-borne diseases and no stone should be left unturned to reach out to the people," he said.
Assured that there was no shortage of medicines, masks, diagnostic kits, the Minister reassured all possible help to the states from the Centre.

During the meeting, Nadda directed that all the available information on the measures taken by the Ministry should be made available to the people through various media channels.
He also sought a report on the availability of NS1 kits, used detection of dengue, as some states said that they do not have enough stock.

During the meeting, Nadda was informed that technical guidelines for prevention and control and clinical management were developed and shared with the states for implementation.
The Ministry has also conducted review meeting with the states and 14 advisories have been sent to all states as early as January this year for strengthening their preparedness before the vector-borne disease season, an official statement said.

Also, the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME 2016-2030) was disseminated to all states and Union Territories with instructions to initiate key actions.
The Ministry has also drafted a 12-point Roadmap for Malaria Elimination for rolling out malaria elimination activities in the country, Nadda was told.
Officials from the Ministry have also had meeting with organised government sector (Army, Navy, Air Force, BSF, CRPF, Railways) for support in malaria elimination.
A National Malaria Task Force, under the Union Health Secretary, and a Technical Working Group, under the DGHS, for oversight of all malaria elimination activities in the country, have also been formed, the statement said.

The Ministry has distributed/being distributed 23.5 million long lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) and more are in pipeline.
Further, eight states have successfully launched their respective plans for malaria elimination and other states/UTs are in process of finalising their action plans for elimination, the statement said.
The Ministry has also requested the states and UTs to declare dengue as notifiable disease for improving reporting and for taking preventive measures in the affected areas.
Till date, 13 states and UTs--Chandigarh, Delhi, D&N Haveli, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and UP--have declared dengue as a notifiable disease, it said.