Ongole: Prakasam district collector A Thameem Ansariya unveiled a wall poster related to the ‘Stop Diarrhoea’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness about diarrheal diseases and their prevention among children under five years of age, at the Spandana Hall in the Collectorate here on Monday.

Speaking at the programme, the collector explained that diarrhoea is defined as loose, watery stools occurring three or more times in a single day among infants. She highlighted that children suffering from diarrheal diseases often experience symptoms including inability to breastfeed or reduced feeding, vomiting after every meal, frequent watery stools leading to dehydration, unconsciousness, and rapid breathing.

She emphasised that diarrheal diseases can be prevented through several measures, including timely vaccination with rotavirus and measles vaccines for all children under five years, exclusive breastfeeding, providing supplementary nutritious food, administering Vitamin A syrup, and maintaining proper hand hygiene by washing hands with soap before meals and after using toilets. For children already affected by diarrhoea, the collector recommended the use of ORS solution and zinc tablets under medical supervision for children under five years of age as effective treatment measures.

District Medical and Health Officer Dr Venkateswara Rao announced that all necessary medicines and saline for diarrhoea prevention are being made available at every urban and primary health centre. He mentioned the establishment of ORS and zinc corners at these facilities and directed that one ORS packet should be supplied to every household with children under five years. The DMHO instructed medical officers to conduct awareness camps on diarrhoea prevention in collaboration with all line departments within their health centre jurisdictions to prevent child mortality due to diarrheal diseases. He also mandated daily reporting of diarrhoea-related cases to the DIO email.

The programme was attended by Joint Collector R Gopala Krishna, DRO Chinna Obulesu, Special Deputy Collectors Varakumar, Sridhar, Johnson, and other officials.