Uttar Pradesh State Government, in association with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched ‘DASTAK’ on 5th February 2018.
- It was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.
- ‘DASTAK’ is a door to door campaign to eradicate deadly Acute Encephalitis (AE) Syndrome and Japanese Encephalitis (JES) disease from the state.
- The tagline for DASTAK is “Darwaja khatkhatao, AES aur JE ko bhagao”.
Highlights
- In DASTAK campaign, the state with the help of UNICEF will now literally go door to door in 38 JES and AE affected districts which mostly fall in the Tarai region of the state. This region contributes to about 60% of the total AES cases all over the country.
- For this campaign many departments of the state especially health, rural development, primary education will work together to spread awareness about the diseases through mass media communication, provide clean drinking water, initiate sanitation drive, ensure vaccination and early treatment so that disease should be nipped in the bud.
- Children of 600 schools in the affected areas will also be part of this campaign.
- Dastak is a part of the comprehensive Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) strategy embraced by the state government to beat encephalitis.
- The exercise would be undertaken in encephalitis affected districts of UP including Gorakhpur.
- Encephalitis, on an average, affects more than 4000 persons besides claiming life of over 500 each year in the state.
- The encephalitis affects children up to 15 years of age. This campaign is an effort to protect them from this deadly disease so that these children too can play an active role in nation building.
- A detailed programme has been prepared to combat Encephalitis. The vaccination work will be completed by March-April 2018.
- As this disease is vector borne so besides vaccination a sanitation drive will also be launched. People will be made aware to keep their surroundings clean. The educational institutions as well as NGOs will be asked to join hands.
- Mal-nourishment is another cause of spread of this disease. Therefore, pregnant women, lactating mothers and infants would be provided with nutritious food.
- The aanganwadi workers will also be involved in this work. The school children will also be taught about this dreaded disease.
