Plan ready to eradicate mosquito-borne diseases

Chennai: The Union health ministry, in its attempt to curb the mosquito-borne infections, launched its district-wise National Strategic Plan on Wednesday. The plan aims at eliminating the infectious diseases by avoiding the transmission of infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitoes by 2030.

As per the new strategic plan, elimination of mosquito-borne diseases by controlling mosquito breeding will be carried out. The spread of diseases will be eliminated by early diagnosis and treatment at the district level so that the local transmission can be stopped completely.

After the launch of a national framework against mosquito-borne diseases, the health ministry is now focusing on district level plan, to lay more responsibility on the shoulder of the states in eliminating these diseases. The plan focuses especially on controlling malaria, as India reports around two million cases of malaria every year.

The state health department is all set to implement the district-level plan along with the village level plan already in existence in the state. “Tamil Nadu has put in place a very strong interdepartmental coordination effort with a focus on cost management and case management of mosquito-borne diseases,” says health secretary J. Radhakrishnan.

He added that the government is working along with the local bodies on eliminating mosquito breeding, more importantly, on awareness drives to sensitise on the causes and control of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, malaria and other diseases. The district-level plan will help to aware the urban population also on such issues.

As per the corporation health department officials, the new strategic plan is defined to target several issues related to infectious diseases district-wise on an annual basis. The district wise plan will help in easy monitoring of the situation from the ground level regularly.

“The surveillance of the diseases, early detection and prevention of outbreak of these diseases are primary steps that will be taken, along with the awareness campaigns that are held regularly. The government is also ensuring spray of repellents on a regular basis to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes,” said an official from the health education department.