Plan charted to deal with bird flu

THOUGH no case of avian influenza (bird flu) has been reported in the State, the Health Department has geared up to fight any emergency situation arising out of the bird flu.

A meeting of the core group was held under the chairmanship of Agriculture Production Commissioner Naveen Chandra Bajpai here on Friday.

The members of the group, including the officers of Health Department, Forest and Animal Husbandry Department, decided to divide the state into five zones and appoint a nodal officer in each zone.

In a videoconference, joint secretary (Livestock Health) Upma Chaudhary and Nodal Officer (Bird Flu) Dr AN Negi directed the state officials to be on alert and implement the preventive measures. The officers were directed to launch mass awareness campaign and train the veterinarians.

Director (Animal Husbandry) Dr RC Sharma said that department had already purchased 300 fogging machines and 1500 personal protection kits. Health Department was directed to immunise the team if the outbreak of Bird Flu was reported.

With the outbreak of Meningococcaemia in Delhi Health Department has sounded alert in the Western districts including Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Bulandshahr, Meerut and Baghpat. “No case of Meningococcaemia has been reported in UP still we are leaving nothing to chance,” the officials said.

Meningococcaemia is an acute bacterial disease caused by meningococcus
and manifested by sudden onset of fever, severe headache and nausea.

It is transmitted through direct contact including droplet and discharge from nose and throat of the patients officials informed.

The Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) were directed to take preventive measures and to reserve beds in the hospital for the patients. A few months back, the outbreak of the Herpes Simplex and Echo Virus

killed large number of children in Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts. Health Department officers of both the districts were directed to take preventive measures.

State Epidemic Disease Control Department prepared a work plan to check the outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis in East UP. It will launch immunisation programme from April. On the other hand, a joint programme was prepared in co-ordination with Bihar Health Department to check the outbreak of kalazar, malaria and filarial.