Cuttack, Nov 12: Today in connection to the rapid spread of JE in Malkangiri, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Orissa High Court.
It’s stated that discussion are been held and is still going on with national-level experts for inventing preventive and control measures and also to conduct vaccination drives in the affected district of Odisha in the last week of December. In the meantime, the state government has organized a training programme for health staff for having mass vaccination against the disease. Around 26 lakh children in the age group of one to 15 years will be targeted in two phases in Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Jajpur districts.
In the first phase, the state has received 10 lakh vaccines and the vaccination will begin from first week of December in the four tribal-dominated districts. Joint Director of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) MM Pradhan said vaccination in Malkangiri will be taken up in second phase as the disease there is in transmission mode.
Notably, the deadly disease originates from pigs and spreads to humans, mostly children, through mosquitoes. Symptoms of Japanese Encephalitis include fever, nausea and fatigue.
