a day ago
Campaign to prevent diarrhoea among children under 5 years of age
Puducherry has launched a two-month-long diarrhoea prevention campaign that aims to reach out to an estimated 74,390 children in the 0-5 years age group.
Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, led the launch of 'Stop Diarrhoea Campaign' formulated on the instructions of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, at a recent function organised at the Government Girls' Middle School, Thilaspet, a government press release stated.
The Chief Minister also distributed ORS packets and zinc tablets to the children in the target age group.
The programme, scheduled to go on till July 31, aims to achieve zero child deaths due to childhood diarrhoea as part of a nation-wide intensive campaign.
Over a two-month-long drive with pre-positioning of two ORS packets and zinc as a co-packaging to children under 5 years of age to broad base access to treatment, the effort would also promote individual and community-level hygienic practices, such as washing hands thoroughly with soap and clean water, consumption of safe and purified drinking water and maintaining proper sanitation facilities.
The Health Department will also ensure that children receive Rotavirus and Pentavalent vaccinations and Vitamin A syrup as per schedule and encourage exclusive breastfeeding for infants for the first six months before introducing complementary feeding from the seventh month.
MLAs V. Aroumougame and S. Ramesh, V. Ravichandran, Health Director, S. Govindarajan, Director, National Health Mission in Puducherry, and Health Deputy Directors V. Anandalakshmi (Family Health and Child Health), Shamimunisa Begum (Public Health) and G. Ragunathan (IEC), Kavitha, school headmistress and health officers participated.
The 2025 campaign seeks to improve outreach with respect to the 77,884 children in the under-5 age group who benefited from the programme last year, the press note said.
