Anantapur: Health educator embanks on drive to check spread of Covid

Anantapur: In the wake of Covid 3rd wave hitting the world including India Dr V Bramha Reddy, a health educator and campaigner against Covid 19, works tirelessly to sensitise communities in the district particularly in rural areas about the new disease.

Unlike in the past, he is using mobile vans to reach the masses with this approach. Dr Bramha Reddy told The Hans India that he was conducting community sensitisation drives for several outbreaks in Kurnool and Anantapur districts but confirms the current drive has been different in the Covid-19 context. "We cannot go near the people, but we still need to teach them about the disease," he said.

He reminds them to stay home and only come out when they need to. He educates them about the transmission of virus. "The virus doesn't move but we human beings move it using our hands. Don't come to public if you have a cough. Wash your hands with soap and water regularly to kill the germs," he pointed out. The posters and several other information, education and communication materials have been produced with Praja Science Vedika & Jana Vignana Vedika support.

The government should conduct sensitisation sessions at every nook and corner of the district, say Bramha Reddy. The magnitude and dimensions of a disease or its antecedents can be measured and described. The prevalence of a disease, for example, is a measure of its frequency in a population at some specified point in time.

The incidence of a disease is the number of new cases that occur during a specified time. Exploration of disease incidence can focus public health attention on critical time periods in the growth of disease, adds Reddy.

The regional and local impact of Covid-19 crisis is highly heterogeneous, with significant implications for crisis management and policy responses. The government should take an in-depth look at the territorial impact of Covid crisis across its different dimensions, health, economic, social and fiscal. It should provide a comprehensive overview of national and state government response measures to manage the vaccination campaigns across levels of government and mitigate the territorial effects of crisis. Government should have a forward looking perspective on the crisis' implications for multi-level governance, as well as points for policy-makers. Community sensitisation programmes are the need of the hour.

These programmes can be conducted through synchronous or asynchronous mode. Community health and preventive measures should be given paramount importance. All the peripheral doctors, health workers and local administration should have awareness on these epidemic diseases.