BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha making rapid strides in malaria control and prevention, the State Government on Monday decided to move to elimination phase in Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts.
As per the national survey figures, conditions have improved significantly in eight coastal districts where Annual Parasite Incidence (API) per 1,000 population is less than one.
“It has been decided to move to elimination phase in three districts of Puri, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur. Other five districts namely Bhadrak, Balasore, Jajpur, Cuttack and Khurda will move to pre-elimination phase,” said Joint Secretary, Health Madan Mohan Pradhan after a review meeting.
The malaria control programme was reviewed at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.
The meeting deliberated on system strengthening in context of malaria elimination. Padhi directed the Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) Department to intensify the State-sponsored malaria elimination scheme ‘DAMAN’ in remote districts from May, 2016.
He further directed the Department to ensure availability of malaria medicines at public health centres (PHCs).
Replying to a media query, H&FW Joint Secretary Surjit Das said DAMAN is an innovative and integrated approach for control and prevention of malaria. The scheme is sponsored and funded by the State Government.
The meeting decided to intensify implementation of the scheme in eight districts which have reported more than 10 API. These districts are Gajapati, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada and Rayagada.
An amount of `25 crore has been estimated for the purpose. The services to be provided include diagnosis, treatment, intensive mass awareness, behavioural change communications, haemoglobin test, nutrition test and supply of medicines.
The meeting further decided to set up 25 entomological units in various districts including five municipal corporations to address malaria and other vector-borne diseases including dengue and chikungunia.
It was also decided that around 1.52 crore long lasting insecticide (LLI) nets will be procured from Global Fund for TB, AIDS and Malaria (GFTAM) within six months. Besides, the ongoing programmes like indoor residual spray, diagnosis and treatment within 24 hours would also be intensified.