<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=467 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=212071[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Why is UP ailing?[/FONT]
</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Health budget up 65%, but vector-borne and communicable diseases also rise; govt reaction too little, too late[/FONT]</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>Maulshree Seth</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Lucknow, December 5[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Knee-jerk. That, at best, is the reaction of the health department with an increased budgetary allocation even as Uttar Pradesh turns into a ?disease hub?, with an alarming rise in the number of polio, dengue, chikungunya and encephalitis cases. And despite claims of various ?achievements?, and a 65 per cent hike in health budget for 2006-07, the State has earned the ignominious distinction of registering the highest number of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the country. According to medical experts, the government machinery failed to implement preventive mechanism in each case; its knee-jerk reaction came only after the disease spread its fangs across the State. Newsline explored the real situation in each case against the government?s claims (see box).
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
So, even as the government fails to explain the alarming rise in vector-borne and communicable diseases, sources reveal that even extensive fogging (in case of the recent dengue and encephalitis scare) in affected areas was initiated only once the diseases spread far and wide.
Thus, even as the State health department and different municipal corporation officials play the blame game, passing the responsibility on to each other, lack of proper coordination between the two worsened the scenario at the ground level.
According to officials, most municipalities lack proper machinery and the health department lacks adequate staff ? each, under an ideal situation, should have complemented the other. But the lack of coordination is admitted by even Chief Medical Officers of Jhansi, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar and other affected districts. ?It is true that there was some problem in the districts but that has been solved now,? said Dr O P Pathak, director of the department of vector borne and communicable diseases.
Interestingly, the different municipal corporations and the health department coordinated only after the Chief Secretary?s recent orders when the number of dengue cases had shot past 300 in the State. In the initial stages, the department repeatedly denied existence of dengue and chikungunya even as reports kept pouring in from the districts.
A few samples were sent for tests only after Jhansi and adjoining districts registered more than 25,000 high-fever cases in September. The results came in mid-October but till then medical experts called it a ?mystery fever?.
Moreover, despite the government?s claims, testing kits were made available in affected areas only around November-beginning, by which time cases of high fever had started declining due to the onset of wintry weather conditions.
I K Jain, Chief Medical Officer of Jhansi, told Newsline that though the health department had released funds, procedures involved in procuring the kits stalled the process.
Arun Mishra, Principal Secretary (Medical and Health), said, ?These cases of fever were detected only after the health department organised camps for diagnosis.? But health department officials did not have an answer when asked how the diseases spread their tentacles so far and wide.
In case of polio ? UP has witnessed an alarming rise in the past one year ? organisations like WHO and UNICEF pointed out that the virus struck back in households that were missed in the earlier pulse polio drives. In Moradabad district, sources said there was no proper check on officials administering polio drops; the administration became firm only after polio cases began emerging from the district.
In the case of TB, informed officials said the department?s negligence was worse. The first-quarter report of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, 2006, put UP at the top in new ?smear positive? cases. But the health department sat quiet. It acted, by appointing a State and District TB officers, only when the second quarter report showed Uttar Pradesh having the most number of new smear positive cases in the country.
?(After) the fact was brought to our notice we have ensured appointment of District TB officers,? Arun Mishra, Principal Secretary (Health), said. ?Recently, we also appointed a State TB officer.?
Significantly, though the health department is in a self-praise mood, saying it successfully curbed Japanese Encephalitis cases this year, more than 400 people have died across the State due to viral encephalitis so far this year. Dr V S Nigam, assistant director at the Department of Vector Borne and Communicable Diseases, who is in charge of curbing encephalitis, said: ?We carried out intensive vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis. But (cases of) other viral encephalitis have risen this year. From next year, we will keep track of them as well.? There, that?s another knee-jerk reaction for you.
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Why is UP ailing?[/FONT]
</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Health budget up 65%, but vector-borne and communicable diseases also rise; govt reaction too little, too late[/FONT]</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>Maulshree Seth</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3 height=10></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD colSpan=3>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Lucknow, December 5[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Knee-jerk. That, at best, is the reaction of the health department with an increased budgetary allocation even as Uttar Pradesh turns into a ?disease hub?, with an alarming rise in the number of polio, dengue, chikungunya and encephalitis cases. And despite claims of various ?achievements?, and a 65 per cent hike in health budget for 2006-07, the State has earned the ignominious distinction of registering the highest number of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the country. According to medical experts, the government machinery failed to implement preventive mechanism in each case; its knee-jerk reaction came only after the disease spread its fangs across the State. Newsline explored the real situation in each case against the government?s claims (see box).
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
So, even as the government fails to explain the alarming rise in vector-borne and communicable diseases, sources reveal that even extensive fogging (in case of the recent dengue and encephalitis scare) in affected areas was initiated only once the diseases spread far and wide.
Thus, even as the State health department and different municipal corporation officials play the blame game, passing the responsibility on to each other, lack of proper coordination between the two worsened the scenario at the ground level.
According to officials, most municipalities lack proper machinery and the health department lacks adequate staff ? each, under an ideal situation, should have complemented the other. But the lack of coordination is admitted by even Chief Medical Officers of Jhansi, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar and other affected districts. ?It is true that there was some problem in the districts but that has been solved now,? said Dr O P Pathak, director of the department of vector borne and communicable diseases.
Interestingly, the different municipal corporations and the health department coordinated only after the Chief Secretary?s recent orders when the number of dengue cases had shot past 300 in the State. In the initial stages, the department repeatedly denied existence of dengue and chikungunya even as reports kept pouring in from the districts.
A few samples were sent for tests only after Jhansi and adjoining districts registered more than 25,000 high-fever cases in September. The results came in mid-October but till then medical experts called it a ?mystery fever?.
Moreover, despite the government?s claims, testing kits were made available in affected areas only around November-beginning, by which time cases of high fever had started declining due to the onset of wintry weather conditions.
I K Jain, Chief Medical Officer of Jhansi, told Newsline that though the health department had released funds, procedures involved in procuring the kits stalled the process.
Arun Mishra, Principal Secretary (Medical and Health), said, ?These cases of fever were detected only after the health department organised camps for diagnosis.? But health department officials did not have an answer when asked how the diseases spread their tentacles so far and wide.
In case of polio ? UP has witnessed an alarming rise in the past one year ? organisations like WHO and UNICEF pointed out that the virus struck back in households that were missed in the earlier pulse polio drives. In Moradabad district, sources said there was no proper check on officials administering polio drops; the administration became firm only after polio cases began emerging from the district.
In the case of TB, informed officials said the department?s negligence was worse. The first-quarter report of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, 2006, put UP at the top in new ?smear positive? cases. But the health department sat quiet. It acted, by appointing a State and District TB officers, only when the second quarter report showed Uttar Pradesh having the most number of new smear positive cases in the country.
?(After) the fact was brought to our notice we have ensured appointment of District TB officers,? Arun Mishra, Principal Secretary (Health), said. ?Recently, we also appointed a State TB officer.?
Significantly, though the health department is in a self-praise mood, saying it successfully curbed Japanese Encephalitis cases this year, more than 400 people have died across the State due to viral encephalitis so far this year. Dr V S Nigam, assistant director at the Department of Vector Borne and Communicable Diseases, who is in charge of curbing encephalitis, said: ?We carried out intensive vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis. But (cases of) other viral encephalitis have risen this year. From next year, we will keep track of them as well.? There, that?s another knee-jerk reaction for you.