Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Drive against filariasis launched in eight districts

Reaching out: Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey and zilla panchayat chief executive officer F.R. Jamadaar launching a drive to prevent spread of filariasis at Tarfail Slum in Gulbarga on Saturday.

GULBARGA: The three-day house-to-house Mass Drug Administration (MDA) drive to prevent the spread of the filariasis in Gulbarga, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Raichur, and Bidar districts began on Saturday.

In Gulbarga, Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey and zilla panchayat chief executive officer P.C. Jaffer launched the drive at Tarfail Slum. DEC tablets were distributed and people were urged to consume the tablets to prevent the disease.

Filariasis was caused by filarial or micro filarial in the tissues of the body resulting in lymphatic inflammation with streaky tender lymphangitis and enlarged tender lymph nodes resulting in lymph oedema, hydrosol and elephantiasis.

Mr. Pandey and Mr. Jaffer and other officials of the Health Department consumed the tablets in front of the slum dwellers to show that it was safe.

The MDA is jointly launched by the Union and State governments. The drive, which was to be launched on June 5, was postponed because of delay in the supply of DEC tablets by the Centre.

There was a delay of nearly two months in launching the drive in Karnataka.

The Centre first launched the drive in 1992 in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh in the first phase to eradicate the disease.

Later the programme was extended to Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal.

In Karnataka, the MDA was first launched in June 5, 2004 and the second round of the MDA was taken up in November 2005 and after a gap of two years, the MDA had been taken up this year.

Gulbarga district was considered the most endemic area with the growing number of cases of filariasis reported every year.

In 2006-07, over 11,000 cases of filariasis were reported and this was in comparison to 10,349 cases reported in 2005-06.

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