E-Paper
Health top on agenda of Yogi government 2.0
Chief minister launches pulse polio campaign, announces ‘final assault’ on JE and AES and urges people to adopt TB patients to meet target of TB-free India by 2025
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday indicated that improving health indices in Uttar Pradesh would top the agenda of his 2.0 government.
Launching the pulse polio campaign from Gorakhpur, he also referred to a ‘final assault’ on Japanese encephalitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the scourge of east UP.
He urged the masses to adopt TB patients to meet the target of TB-free India by 2025, five years ahead of the World Health Organisation’s deadline of eradicating the disease globally.
Before leaving for Lucknow Yogi, who will on Friday be sworn in as chief minister for a record consecutive second term, also spoke of how from 2017-2022 his government developed health infrastructure that helped reduce death of children due to JE in east UP by 95 per cent.
“In 40 years, 50,000 children had died in east UP due to JE. We found out a way and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat campaign contributed in a big way. Now, we are preparing a final assault to eradicate this disease,” Yogi said.
“In March 2020, UP didn’t have any RT-PCR test facility but today it has developed a capability to carry out 4 lakh tests per day,” Yogi said while talking of how the ‘4Ts’ (test, trace, treat and ‘tika (vaccination)’ helped overcome the Covid challenge.
UP’s additional chief secretary, medical and health, Amit Mohan Prasad said the state’s Covid management elicited praise globally. “A US-based NGO is also making a documentary on the state’s Covid management,” Prasad said.
Yogi further said: “Previously 36 districts didn’t have any ventilator, now all districts have one. Five years back there was only BRD Medical College. Now, along with improved medical infrastructure in this hospital, there is also AIIMS Gorakhpur and adjoining regions like Kushinagar, Deoria, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Maharajganj, Balrampur, Bahraich, Gonda, Ayodhya and Sultanpur either have a medical college or are on way to having one.”
For the last 12 years, no cases of polio have been reported from UP but Yogi cautioned against lowering the guard as few countries have still reported cases. “Since polio is infectious, we have to be cautious,” he said.
“Polio cases have still been reported Pakistan and Afghanistan,”
Yogi said.
Besides them, two other nations – Malawi and Israel – too have reported cases, health officials said during the launch of the polio campaign under which polio drops would be administered to an estimated 3.8 crore children under 5 years of age.
The last polio case in the state was reported from Firozabad on April 21, 2010 while India reported its last case from Howrah, West Bengal in 2011 before the country was declared polio free in 2014.
“I seek the support of religious leaders, public representatives and others for the pulse polio immunisation campaign, which seeks to secure the future of our children. Till the time polio is completely wiped out from across the globe, we have to take precautions,” Yogi said.
“I want people to adopt TB patients,” Yogi said.
UP accounts for nearly 5.75 lakh TB patients and to screen those afflicted with this disease the government has provided hospitals with CB-NAAT test machine that offers the most definite test for TB. UP governor Anandiben Patel had in 2019 adopted a girl afflicted with the disease and her staff at the Raj Bhawan had followed suit by adopting 21 other affected children in Lucknow.
Post adoption a TB patient is already entitled to ₹500 per month from the government for a nutritious diet with the cash amount being transferred directly into their account. Medical experts said early detection and regular medication and diet are the key to treating the disease, which otherwise degenerates into multi-drug resistance (MDR) or in extreme cases even into extensive drug resistant TB (XDR-TB).
