On Sunday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath informed that the government had successfully controlled the spread of the deadly encephalitis in the State. He made the comments during the campaign launch in Varanasi.
“In 2017, we started a special vaccination program to aware citizens about Encephalitis. As a result, the State managed to control the disease by 75% & death rate by 85%,” news agency ANI quoted CM Adityanath as saying. He further added that the vaccination drive to prevent encephalitis was supported by international organisations such as WHO and UNICEF.
In 2017, we started special vaccination program to aware citizens about Encephalitis. As a result, the State managed to control the disease by 75% & death rate by 85%. UNICEF, WHO also supported to make this program a success: CM Yogi Aditynath during campaign launch in Varanasi pic.twitter.com/Dye7pXE10M
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 28, 2021
In September last year, Yogi Adityanath informed that massive improvement in cleanliness under Swachh Bharat Mission helped decrease the death rate due to encephalitis by a large margin.
While speaking about the success achieved in his erstwhile Lok Sabha constituency of Gorakhpur, he said, “…At least 600 children used to die due to AES every year between 1977 and 2017. After we came to power in 2017, several people joined the Swachh Bharat Mission. Only six children died due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in Gorakhpur this year, which means we have controlled over 99% deaths.”
The steps taken by the Yogi government to tackle Encephalitis
After Yogi Adityanath became the CM, he started the ‘Guidelines for Prevention and Treatment of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome’. A large scale immunisation programme that included a door-to-door awareness campaign, named ‘Dastak’ was launched. Moreover, over 3.5 lakh officers and employees were provided with training to equip them to respond and deal with AES prevention and treatment.
The campaign was planned as a holistic programme to educate and provide facilities to the families, not only for vaccination but also for the prevention and treatment of the disease. The United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) had praised the Uttar Pradesh government led by CM Yogi Adityanath for successfully immunizing all children of the state against Japanese Encephalitis and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome.
