Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday launched a campaign to eradicate the deadly encephalitis disease that claims the lives of hundreds of children every year in Uttar Pradesh.
He stressed on awareness and public participation for the success of the campaign that has been rolled out in 38 districts in the worst-affected eastern region of the state. Around 40,000 children have died of encephalitis in the region over the past 40 years.
“Today’s campaign has been started with the aim of eradicating encephalitis of all kinds — Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)— and making the state encephalitis-free in the coming few years,” the UP CM said.
The chief minister said that though the programme was being implemented all over the country, it is being taken up with special vigour in the state where more than 38 districts have been hit by the killer disease.
The Chief Minister called on spreading awareness among the people as well as their participation to help achieve the goal of eradicating the disease. He also added that the disease can be checked through clean potable water, effective cleanliness programmes and through such immunisation schemes. The state government will also be working to provide piped water supply to the districts.
Adityanath also stated that the government was working to provide treatment for the disease at the community health centres and district hospitals and only serious cases reach BRD medical college hospital in Gorakhpur. He added that a special training programme for doctors and paramedical staff is being held in the BRD medical college for the purpose.
The immunisation campaign will continue till June 11 and will be provided to children up to 15 years of age.
The drive will cover over 88 lakh children for which the central government has provided one crore vaccines.
Though vaccines are available for JE, there is no such vaccine for checking AES and better hygiene is the only way to prevent it.