Over 1,100 Health Camps Treat 20,668 Patients; ASHA Workers Distribute 20,276 Health Kits in 1,471 Villages in Single Day
Punjab Newsline, Chandigarh-
The multi-pronged ‘Special Health Campaign’ launched by the CM Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab Government to combat flood-borne diseases in 2303 affected villages has successfully contained potential disease outbreaks, said Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Balbir Singh here on Saturday.
Reviewing the reports from the field, the Minister expressed satisfaction that the massive mobilisation of the state’s medical fraternity—including government doctors, private volunteers, Ayurveda medical officers, and MBBS interns—has successfully provided a robust health shield to the citizens in the flood-ravaged areas.
Dr Balbir Singh stated that the campaign's three-core component strategy is functioning as planned, with Health Camps providing critical curative care, Door-to-Door visits ensuring preventive care reaches every household, and the rigorous fumigation protecting the community from outbreaks.
Sharing data of preventive measures undertaken on Saturday, the Health Minister said that medical teams have covered 1,118 villages, conducting 20,668 OPD consultations in camps treating 2,324 fever cases, 505 diarrhoea cases, 2,606 skin infections, and 1,133 eye infections.
Concurrently, the army of over 20,000 ASHA workers has been instrumental in door-to-door visits, covering 1,471 villages and 62,021 households, he said, while adding that they have distributed 20,276 essential health kits and proactively screened residents, identifying 1,105 fever cases and zero malaria case has been diagnosed.
Similarly, intensive vector-control drives have covered 1,554 villages with teams checking 63,233 households for mosquito breeding, finding and destroying breeding sites in 969 houses. As a critical preventive measure, preemptive larvicide was sprayed at 19,303 houses, and extensive fumigation was carried out in 955 villages to break the disease transmission cycle.
"This data demonstrates that our preventive strategy is working. While treating the sick is crucial, our primary objective has been to stop diseases before they start," said Dr Balbir Singh. The Minister credited the success to the campaign's design that emphasises prevention over reaction. "Under Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann's guidance, we built this campaign anticipating health challenges rather than waiting for them to emerge,” he said.