Haryana Government on Wednesday launched three health-related programs, including H1N1 Vaccination Campaign for Health Care workers, Hepatitis-B Control Program under National Viral Hepatitis Control Program and Eye donation centres in 21 District hospitals of the State.
With this, free of cost Hepatitis-B screening, diagnosis, and treatment will now be available to the people of the State.
After inaugurating the three programmes, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Rajeev Arora, addressed the civil surgeons and representatives of various hospitals from different districts of the state through video conferencing and said that the percentage of population suffering from Hepatitis B should be ascertained and directed them to prepare a work plan to deal with it.
Arora said in the first phase of Hepatitis-B control program, newborns, pregnant women and inmates in state jails should be covered. Also, it should be implemented in districts like Sirsa, Hisar, Fatehabad, Gurugram and Faridabad, he added. He directed the concerned officers to increase the Hepatitis-B screening facility in the state and check maximum number of people in the affected districts.
The official said that after preparing a detailed action plan of Hepatitis B control program and National Program for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment, both the programmes will be duly implemented from the month of August.
He said that due to Covid-19 pandemic as the Health Department has come into focus due to which there has been mobilization of health workers across the State and public awareness regarding health has also increased so this time should be used productively to achieve the goals of these programs.
Arora said that in India, since 2016 about 85000 persons are being infected by the H1N1 virus and 4900 deaths have occurred in the last few years. India usually witnesses two peaks, one during January to March and another in post monsoon between August and October, he added. He said that this infection is primarily spread through respiratory droplets acquired through coughing, sneezing or touching an object having droplets on it. H1N1 infection can affect any age and gender, he added.
The Additional Chief Secretary, Health said health workers fall in the high-risk category and require special attention. Around 13,000 health workers across the state will be vaccinated as a campaign. For this, the vaccine that is planned to be used is a single dose vaccine and is effective for a period of one year. He informed that all the 22 districts in the state are being provided free H1N1 testing, diagnosis and treatment services already. He also stressed on the safety of health workers dealing with infections like H1N1 and Covid-19, etc.
Arora said under the NVHCP program, hepatitis-C is already being provided free treatment, diagnosis and treatment facilities in all the 22 district civil hospitals and all the jails of the state which are designated as treatment centres. He said that now the Hepatitis-B patients in the state will also be provided the same facilities.
He said that three new 'Eye banks' will be started soon in Karnal, Khanpur and Mewat medical colleges, stating that all the 68 eye assistants in the state have been trained in cornea collection to overcome the shortage of doctors.
Mission Director, National Health Mission, Prabhjot Singh, Director General Health Services, Suraj Bhan Kamboj and Director, Health Services, Usha Gupta and other senior officers of the department were also present.
