The State department of public health has constituted task forces for elimination of malaria and leprosy in the State. In a notification issued, the task forces set up for the districts of south and north Goa are constituted to entirely eliminate the two diseases from the State.
PANAJI
The State Task Force for Malaria Elimination to carry out timely review on programme implementation involving different sectors and stakeholders in the State. The committee will comprise of the Secretary (Health) as chairman, Secretary (Urban Development), Director of Health Services, Dean of GMC, Director of Panchayat, PWD Chief Engineer, Director of Information and Publicity as members and Deputy Director of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) as the member secretary.
The number of cases of malaria in the State went from 651 cases in 2015 to 742 cases in 2016 and so far for the year 2017, 38 cases were registered. This year, out of the 53,940 blood slides examined, only 38 were detected positive for malaria.
The duties of the committee include having quarterly meetings to identify areas of co-ordination and collaboration to discuss concerns, best practices that could be replicated, give directions or planning the implementation of the Malaria Elimination Programme and also check effective mobilization/pooling of resources as and when required, give directions to carry out awareness programmes with involvement of other Government Departments and NGOs and carry out co-ordination with various departments to emphasise to accelerate the efforts to achieve Universal Sanitation coverage as envisaged under Swachh Bharat Mission.
The State Leprosy Coordination committee on the other hand comprises of Secretary (Health) as chairman, Secretary (Urban Development), Director of Health Services, Dean of GMC, Director of Municipal Administration and Director of Panchayat as members and Chief Medical Officer of NLEP as member secretary.
Similar to the malaria committee’s duties, the leprosy committee will emphasise on efforts to achieve early diagnosis and treatment to prevent disability and reduce stigma & discrimination. Leprosy cases in the State for the year 2015 were recorded at 136.
