SHILLONG: Health and Family Welfare Minister A.L. Hek said the occurrence of skin diseases in some areas of South West Garo Hills villages is due to unhygienic environment and lack of awareness in matters of health and sanitation.
He was replying to a call attention motion moved by Congress Legislator Azad Zaman on the skin disease break-out in Mahendraganj.
The matter was raised in the Assembly on Friday.
Zaman said he had visited Mahendraganj Community Health Centre and the neighbouring villages namely Nandirchar and Kazipara on August 24 along with District Medical & Health Officer, South West Garo Hills and staff of Mahendraganj CHC and assessed the situation.
As for the preventive measures, Hek said drugs alone will not solve the health problems of the villagers unless health education is given to them.
He said to arrest further spread of these infectious skin diseases, health education should be given to the villagers.
“Improvement of environmental sanitation should be taught to prevent occurrence of such diseases in future. Self medication should be discouraged to avoid drug resistance and prevent relapse of skin diseases.”
He said that the diseases can be transmitted from one infected person to another by direct physical contact, by poor personal hygiene as well as by infected animals to humans.
As far as non infectious skin disorders are concerned, these are due to extreme heat, hypersensitivity to solar antigens as well intrinsic and extrinsic allergic factors.
The environment and surroundings where the people live was found to be very unhygienic with random disposal of waste materials here and there.
Hek went on to add that collection of dirty stagnant water ditches and ponds adjacent to their houses need to be checked and children should not play in the same stagnant pond.
There is also the issue of keeping of cattle near their dwelling places which can greatly increase the chance of transmission of zoonotic skin diseases to humans.
“There was no drainage system for the household waste water. In some households, it was seen that the waste water is directly draining into the stagnant pond,” he said.
Zaman asked about the measures to eradicate the diseases and prevent its spread.
After the Minister’s reply Zaman suggested the examination of water by the PHE department.
