Begusarai: You must have seen such people in villages or cities, whose legs or any other body part appear heavier due to swelling. This could be due to filariasis, which people colloquially call ‘elephant foot’ disease. Most of its cases emerge from rural areas. This disease can make a person crippled or disabled forever. In such a situation, good news has come for the patients suffering from elephantiasis due to filariasis. Disability certificate will now be given to such patients by the health department.
About 65 crore people across the country have filariasis. According to the Health Department, 4925 patients have been reported in Begusarai district. Disability certificate will now be provided to all these patients. After the certificate is made, you can also avail the benefits of government schemes.
The medicine has not yet reached the patients
The Local 18 team talked to Ratan Paswan, Balmiki Kumar, Dularpur Mahto and Nirmala Devi, patients suffering from filariasis in Begusarai district, about the government facilities available, including help in testing for the disease. These patients said that many facilities are written on the government poster. But, till date, the assistance of the scheme has not come out of the poster. We do not get medicines on time every month. Even sometimes it is returned. Sometimes we get Rs 400 as financial assistance. To help such patients, the District Vector Borne Disease Control Office has been set up in Sadar Hospital, but the responsible officers were seen shying away from telling anything.
Filaria patients will get disability certificateTr
Begusarai Sadar Hospital’s administrative officer Dr. Sanjay Kumar Singh told Local 18 that on the instructions of the Central Health Ministry, the State Commissioner for Disability has received instructions to issue disability certificates to patients suffering from elephantiasis. He said that disability certificates will be issued only after examining filariasis patients. Earlier, disability certificates were given to people suffering from blindness, low vision, leprosy-cured persons, hearing loss, physically handicapped, mentally retarded, mental illness, but now the work of giving disability certificates to elephantiasis patients has also started. Piramal Foundation’s Deepak Mishra said that our team will now work to provide everything from disability certificate to medicines to the suffering patients. Patients can apply online by visiting any nearby CSAC center or contact their nearest hospital.
Tags: Begusarai news, Bihar News, health benefits, Local18
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 23, 2024, 09:28 IST