Vaccination drive against filaria

THE HEALTH Department will launch a week-long vaccination campaign on National Filaria Day, to be observed on January 8 to spread awareness about the disease.

THE HEALTH Department will launch a week-long vaccination campaign on National Filaria Day, to be observed on January 8 to spread awareness about the disease.

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The newly posted urban malaria officer is working overtime to make the National Filaria Day a success by garnering best possible information from clerks in the malaria office to get himself acquainted with the malaria department.

The filaria campaign will be conducted under the supervision of the chief medical officer, who held a meeting with all medical officers concerned recently.

Dr SC Pathak said, “The vaccination programme for filaria is organised in the city due to National Filaria Day, but the number of filaria patients has shown a decline in 2005 compared to 2004. Since I have taken over the charge recently it will take me sometime to understand the nitty-gritty of the vector-borne diseases.”

According to district malaria office figure, in Kanpur city there were only 658 filaria patients in 2005, whereas in 2004, the city had 697 patients against 319 cases in 2003.

Ironically, according to the same department figure, there were only 159 cases of malaria in the entire city, whereas records at LLR Hospital showed that 745 patients visited the hospital in 2005.

On January 8, the health department will open 140 booths in the urban area of the city.

Dr Vijay Shankar Singh said, “Besides the vaccination campaign we will conduct a wide survey to get the exact number of filaria patients in the city.”