BANGALORE: Mumbai's well-known 'dabbawallas' join hand with the World Health Organization to spread awareness towards prevention and control of vector-borne diseases. The city's 50,000-odd dabbawalas will carry a special message tag on its 200,000 plus tiffin boxes to highlight the threats by vector-borne diseases in India.
This awareness programme is jointly carried out by the World Health Organization Country Office for India with the Health Department of Maharashtra and the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust as a part of a World Health Day 2014. This campaign with the theme-"Small Bite: Big Threat" is mainly for the prevention and control of vector borne diseases like dengue, malaria, chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis, kala-azar and Japanese encephalitis in India.
"The dabbawallas are an integral part of Mumbai's fabric," said WHO's representative in India, Dr Nata Menabde. "In India, the burden and risk of vector-borne diseases is massive," she added.
Raghunath Medge of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust further exclaimed "People may miss billboards carrying health messages. But while opening the dabba, they are bound to notice the health tag,'' reports TOI.
Vector-borne diseases account for 17 percent of the estimated global burden of all infectious diseases with dengue emerging the fastest growing with a 30-fold increase in incidence in the past 50 years. Around 70 percent of the countries and territories hit by VBDs are low income and lower-middle income with causes like climate, environmental change and globalization, reports IANS.
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