Staff Reporter
Margao
Margao town and areas under the Margao Urban Health Centre (UHC) have been undertaking year-round activities and checks, including at construction sites and among the migrant community, to bring vector-borne diseases under control.
Speaking on the occasion of World Malaria Day, Margao UHC health officer
Dr Baptist Mascarenhas said while ongoing activities help check the spread of
the disease, people also need to remain alert throughout the year.
“This year’s theme is ‘Malaria ends with us-reinvest, reimagine and reignite’. We keep telling people about vector-borne diseases but over time people tend to forget about it and only remember once cases start to surface again. People tend to lose interest the rest of the time. This is an initiative to remind and reignite the importance of being alert all the time,” he said.
Outlining the activities taken up, Mascarenhas said, “We take up IEC activities with field workers and educators who go to construction sites and meet migrants and tell them about malaria and other vector-borne diseases, how to prevent them, and what precautions and measures they should take.”
The field workers and educators also inform people about the treatments available and what they should do if they get fever.
“All of our officers including field workers, nodal officers, sanitary inspectors, and health officers are daily engaged in these works. They do mass surveys and even take up slide tests,” he said.
Mascarenhas said that the slides are tested and reports are prepared within 24 hours. If a positive case is detected, the patient is immediately informed.
“They go to the person immediately along with the field officer concerned and start the treatment on the same day. This treatment is given free of cost. In some cases we make sure the patient takes the treatment. Then we take another test after the effective treatment is done to check for a negative test,” he said.
