The state government has decided a two-phase campaign to combat elephantiasis commonly identified as massive limb swelling across 17 sensitive districts of Maharashtra from November 15-19.
The union plans making compulsory the intake of DEC dose once a year to eliminate the epidemic
The state government has decided a two-phase campaign to combat elephantiasis (filariasis) commonly identified as massive limb swelling across 17 sensitive districts of Maharashtra from November 15-19. The campaign is part of the national drive to make country elephantiasis-free by 2015. The union health ministry has shortlisted sensitive districts across 20 states which require sustained campaign to fight the disease.
The central ministry of health and family welfare report described filariasis as a major public health problem in Indian next only to malaria, adding that there were about 470 million people living in filarial endemic areas in about 250 districts across the country.
Filariasis leads to irreversible chronic manifestations, which are responsible for social stigma besides causing considerable economic loss and severe physical disability to the affected individuals. Acute attacks traumatise patients with transient episodes of disability, often confining the patients to bed rest for several months.
State health minister Vimal Mundada has directed the officials in the urban and rural districts to ensure every individual in the sensitive districts are provided the dose of diethyl carbamazetile (DEC). The government worry is that people not suffering from elephantiasis in sensitive districts may resist to dose. But the centre has clearly stated that almost 93 per cent of the people (except pregnant women and children below two years) in sensitive districts will have to be immunised through DEC pills at least once a year.
Elephantitis, which occurs due to mosquitoes breeding in a dirty and stagnant water, is common in rural areas, with cases more prevalent in adjoining Thane (rural) than Mumbai city. Officials in the health department said, “Elephantaisis is primarily a rural phenomenon, common among bare-footed field workers. But over the years there have been cases spotted in urban sectors too.”
Among the 17 districts that have been identified as elephantaisis sensitive are Thane, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, Sholapur, Sindhudurg, Nanded, latur, Osmanabad, Akola, Amravati, Yavatmal, Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli.
The health department guidelines state that people in the 17 sensitive districts should take the yearly dose of DEC to enable them to fight the disease. The centre has provided a grant of Rs 247 lakh to carry out the campaign in state. The state has received 11.5 crore DEC pills.
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