ROURKELA: The health administration has embarked on a special drive to effectively fight filariasis in the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district by night-time collection of blood samples. Chief district medical officer (CDMO) Dr SK Mishra said the parasite (Wuchereria bancrofti), which causes filariasis, comes to peripheral blood smears only during night. All the rural and urban pockets of the district are being covered under the survey. The drive to hold night camps for collection of blood smear samples kicked off on September 12 and will continue till September 29.
“We have set a target to hold 58 camps. Till Saturday, 22 camps were held across Sundargarh sub-division and 7,150 blood samples collected. Examination of blood samples is underway and simultaneously, we are holding awareness campaigns for prevention of the disease,” the CDMO informed.
Sources said prior to 2018, Sundargarh was not known for having filaria cases. But in 2018, a substantial number of filaria patients started coming to Sundargarh district headquarters hospital (DHH), setting off alarm bells among the health officials.
Following a baseline survey in the district, the microfilaria rate in 2019 was found to be 4.6 per cent and the State government was requested for inclusion of Sundargarh for mass drug administration, he added.
District vector borne disease consultant Dr Manoj Mohapatra said the baseline survey covering almost all the villages found a total 4,419 cases of hydrocele and 2,028 cases of lymphodema. With introduction of mass drug administration from 2020-21, the microfilaria rate came down to 1.5 percent in two years.
The CDMO said so far, around 300 operations for hydrocele have been conducted at the DHH, Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH), Birkera community health centre (CHC) and Rajgangpur Area Hospital.
The health administration is considering to use the CHCs in blocks and urban public health centres in urban areas as units for implementation of filarial prevention measures.