Staff Reporter:
Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yester-day said there is no alternative to raising public awareness to prevent dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases, stressing the need to strengthen online awareness campaigns across the country.
“There is no alternative to awareness. At the same time, online awareness campaign must be intensified so that people adopt preventive measures against dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases,” he said.
The minister said this while addressing as the chief guest a workshop on Insights Dissemination of the Improvement of Urban Public Health Preventive Services Project (IUPHPSP) at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital.
Fakhrul Islam said the national committee on mosquito-borne disease prevention has already held its first meeting and is continuing its work.
He hoped that Improvement of Urban Public Health Preventive Services Project will play an important role in strengthening dengue prevention efforts.
Despite various initiatives, mosquito larvae are still being found in different areas, he said, adding that greater public awareness is essential to effectively tackle the situation.
He said the Prime Minister attaches the highest importance to public health, cleanliness and disease pre-vention and envisions a clean, healthy and beautiful Bangladesh.
“Under his leadership, we will continue our collective efforts to achieve that goal,” he said.
Speakers at the workshop said the IUPHPS project being implemented by the Local Government Divi-sion (LGD) with financing from the World Bank, aims to strengthen disease prevention capacity and public health management in urban areas.
The project is working to expand preventive public health services and build effective mechanisms to combat dengue and other diseases in cities, they added.
Chattogram City Corporation Mayor Dr Shahadat Hossain, Dhaka North City Corporation Administrator Shafiqul Islam Khan, Director General of the Monitoring, Evaluation and Inspection Wing of the Fi-nance and Planning Ministry Mahmudul Hasan, Project Director of the IUPHPSP Abul Khayer Mo-hammad Hafizullah Khan and senior officials concerned attended the workshop.
