DMCH celebrates World Health Day by releasing Public Health Education Material for the general public

Ludhiana, April 7, 2014: Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana today observed World Health Day by releasing Health Education Material on various health-related topics by Vice President of DMCH Managing Society Amrit Nagpal alongwith Secretary Prem Kumar Gupta.
In his address, Prem Kumar Gupta emphasised that DMCH has all along been contributing towards the cause of increasing awareness on health-related issues through organising health education lectures and medical camps. Recently published brochures on `Scope of Services, Health Education and Patient Education’, which will be widely distributed among the public, is a new step in this direction.
Principal Dr Daljit Singh, Vice Principal Dr Sandeep Puri, Dean Academics Dr Rajoo Singh Chhina, Additional Medical Suptd Dr Sandeep Sharma, Dr Anurag Chaudhary (Prof & Head, Community Medicine) and Principal, College of Nursing- Dr Jasbir Kaur were among those present.  
World Health Day is celebrated every year on 7th April. The theme this year is on ‘Vector Borne Diseases’ with message of 'Small Bite Big Threat'. These are group of diseases that are spread by insects like mosquitoes & flies.
In an awareness programme organised today in Dumra, the function began with Puppet Show by students of College of Nursing, in which they rightfully depicted the theme of World Health Day. The show was followed by lectures and brief messages by faculty from Department of Community Medicine and Medicine.
Dr Priya Bansal, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine highlighted that these diseases are easily preventable. In her presentation, Dr Bansal stressed that resistance to insecticides is a major challenge faced by stake holders and so community education and participation is the key to prevention and control of these diseases.
Dr Sandeep Puri and Dr HS Pannu from the Department of Medicine enlightened the audience about taking various preventive measures to avoid the risk of getting viral infections. Sr Residents from Department of Medicine- Dr Pulkit, Dr Arshdeep and Dr Kanika spoke on symptoms and treatment of Malaria, Dengue and Scrub typhus respectively.
It was discussed that major vector borne diseases in India are Malaria, Filaria, Kala-Azar, Japanese Encephalitis, Dengue, Dengue Hemorrhagic fevers and Chikungunya.
Of all these diseases, malaria & dengue are of utmost importance for the state of Punjab as the dengue epidemic is showing an upward trend. Recent studies have found that Malaria causes more deaths than HIV/AIDS and Dengue causes economic burden on families & government.