Need to create awareness about Nipah virus: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said that there is a need to create awareness among people about the deadly Nipah virus.

"There is a need to organise 'swasthya mela' at the panchayat level for creating awareness about various diseases. Recently, we have come to know about a disease (Nipah) in Kerala, for which we have to create awareness among people," Kumar said at a function organised by the health department.

The Bihar government had on Saturday issued an advisory about the Nipah virus, asking people to exercise precautions.

The CM also inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 301 schemes worth Rs 784 crore of the health department through remote control at the function.

Kumar said his government is committed to improve health care facilities that include making Patna Medical College and Hospital a world class oganisation.

"Once people from Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, north eastern states used to come to PMCH for treatment. It has been my long cherished dream to make PMCH a world class hospital. A presentation was made for making PMCH a 5,000-bed hospital.

"The hospital would be built in eight years time, but I would hope that it would be completed at the earliest," he said.

PMCH will be connected with Ganga Path, a 20.5-km driveway along river Ganga, and a flyover will be built on Ashok Rajpath, so that patients do not face problems in reaching the hospital, the CM said.

As per an official survey in February 2006, only 39 patients used to visit primary health centres in a month, but the figure increased to 1,500-2,000, according to a second survey conducted in November 2006, following several steps taken by the Bihar government, Kumar said.

Today, that number has crossed 10,000, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that all hospitals must dispose off biomedical waste, failing which the state government would be forced to take action against them.

The Bihar State Pollution Control Board, which carried out a survey of 24,303 hospitals in the state, has issued notices to 2038 hospitals, Sushil Modi said.

State government hospitals having more than 10 beds will be eqipped with Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) at an estimated cost ranging between Rs 75,000 and Rs 5 lakh, the Dy CM added.