ITANAGAR, Feb 13: The Itanagar regional office of the directorate of field publicity (DFP) on Tuesday launched a special outreach programme focusing on Mission Indradhanush (MI), Mission Parivar Vikas, TB and leprosy in high-priority districts of the state, identified by the union health & family welfare ministry.
The campaign will be held in West Siang, East Siang, Lohit and Lower Subansiri districts during February.
Addressing the participants at the launch programme, DFP Director HR Keshavamurthy brief them on the six districts identified for TB control, and the 13 districts identified for intensified MI.
These include Tirap, East Siang, East Kameng, Lower Subansiri and Papum Pare for TB; and Upper Siang, Upper Subansiri, Tirap, Changlang, Longding, East Siang, East Kameng, Kurung Kamey, Lohit, Namsai, Kra Daadi, Anjaw and Papum Pare for Mission Indradhanush (MI).
Keshavamurthy requested the representatives of the health & family welfare department and the NHM to assist the field publicity officers in reaching out to remote villages of the state.
Family Welfare Joint Director Dr D Padung in his presentation on MI said that an additional 7.4% full immunization was achieved during the intensified immunization campaign held from October 2017 to January 2018, and that achieving 90% immunization by December has been envisaged.
“In Arunachal Pradesh, only Changlang district has achieved immunization coverage of 80-100%, and East Kameng and Kurung Kumey have coverage of less than 40%,” Dr Padung informed.
He said that among 50% of the population not covered by full immunization, 80% are dropped-out cases and 20% are left-out cases.
“The reason for this is 37% do not know about the programme and 32% have AEFI apprehension (fear and misconception about adverse events following immunization), as per a UNICEF survey conducted between 16 April to 17 January, covering 4,17,903 children,” he said.
DHS Joint Director Dr R Das Tabyo in her presentation explained the difficulty caused by hidden cases of leprosy in some pockets of the state. She requested the DFP to help in encouraging such patients with deformities to approach the leprosy treatment centre.
Dr Tabyo also spoke about the prevalence of cases of drug resistance against tuberculosis.
“There are DOTS centres in all the districts and in many blocks, where free treatment is available. In case of drug resistance cases, there are high-tech labs in Naharlagun to detect such cases,” she said.
She advised the DFP to explain to TB patients that the anti-TB medication course runs for 8-10 months, and to encourage dropped-out patients to complete the course.
IPR Director Obang Tayeng suggested taking advantage of satellite television, the social media and the All India Radio to reach out to the people, “as the media is in infant stage in the state due to various reasons.”
He assured to provide assistance from his department in making the campaign successful.
