Chennai, Sept 20 (BPNS)
The diarrhoea control drives among children under 5 years of age of the Tamil Nadu health department will conclude on September 30. While the state health department commenced the drive on September 16, in the initial phase the focus was to create awareness among the people on the reason for the disease and how it is getting spread.
The drive which is supported the National Health Mission (NHM) is to mainly prevent deaths due to diarrhoea. Dr .J .Sampath , Joint Director of Public Health, Tamil Nadu while speaking to BPNS said, “There are around 63 lakh diarrhoea cases reported in India. However, the number of cases reported in Tamil Nadu is very low but still, we are conducting awareness among the general public so that they should not be caught unaware if the disease turns up into their child.”
An Anganwadi worker will be assigned for every 1000 population to spread awareness among the people on diarrhoea. The trained workers will create awareness of the disease among the families and the immediate first aid measures to be taken care of if the child is affected by the disease.
They will also apprise upon the families as to when the child requires hospital admission as well as on the various home remedies that people can follow.
The trained Anganwadi staff will provide information to parents on Oral dehydration therapy as well as awareness on the usage of zinc tablets. If the disease persists the child after these measures, child will have to be taken to a hospital.
Dr Sampath said that this is to help the people understand more about the issues to be dealt with at home before being taken to a hospital. He also said that special camps will be conducted at Primary health centres for the mothers on the disease in addition to the Anganwadi worker conducting door to door campaign.
The national average for mortality in diarrhoea cases is 13 per cent in the country while in states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chattisgarh it is 50 to 60 per cent.
The state health department also issued directive that the spread of diarrhoea is mainly due to the use of unsafe drinking water and food not properly cooked.
