Surveillance to Continue For Another 12 Months

There have been 1165 scabies cases and 592 infected scabies recorded for the Northern Division from July 16, 2018 to January, 2019. This was revealed by the Divisional Medical Officer (DMO) North Dr Veeraraghavan Subramanian since the commencement of the surveillance after the Mass Drug Administration (MDA) campaign which began on Monday.

“The raw data for scabies cases above was presented to our primary health facilities,” Dr Subramanian said.

“Surveillance started on

July 16 last year.

“Before we commenced, there was no way to tell how many cases of scabies were presented to the primary health centres outside the

IMCI age group.

“Surveillance will continue for another 12 months after the MDA campaign and then we will be able to compare whether the health burden decreased from the baseline after MDA or not.

“57 out of 60 (95 per cent) zone nurses, 150 health workers and 397 community health workers have been trained for the MDA and awareness,” he said.

“They are all out in the field visiting schools and communities supplying tablets and pamphlets.

“MDA is when everyone in a community takes medication to treat those who are affected as well as prevent diseases like scabies, lymphatic filariasis and intestinal worms from occurring in the future by stopping transmission from one person to another.”

The campaign will end on August 10, 2019.

57 out of 60 (95 per cent) zone nurses, 150 health workers and 397 community health workers have been trained for the MDA and awareness, Dr Veeraraghavan Subramanian Divisional Medical Officer (DMO) North