Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Fresh drug stock to be ensured

Staff Reporter

Lack of sanitation at Vizhinjam compounds health problems

DAMAGE CONTROL: District Collector N. Ayyappan (right), addressing a meeting convened at the Collectorate here on Wednesday. City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham, (center) George Mercier, MLA, are seen. — Photo: S. Mahinsha

Thiruvananthapuram: The district health administration will take immediate steps to ensure fresh stock of medicines for viral fever in the community health centre (CHC) at Vizhinjam. Steps will also be taken to ensure that at least one doctor is present at the centre round the clock till the epidemic in the coastal area subsides.

It has been decided to clean up the coastline with the help of Central Reserved Police Force personnel. However, once the clean-up operation is complete, the panchayat authorities will have to devise their own measures to ensure that the garbage generated in each ward is disposed of.

This was decided at a meeting of health officials, authorities of local bodies and elected representatives at the Collectorate on Wednesday to discuss steps to tackle viral fever.

George Mercier, MLA, who attended the meeting, said the Health Department had not risen to the occasion to meet the "health crisis" at Vizhinjam. He said the people were not educated about the nature of chikungunya, how it affected the health or how best it could be treated. The disease had created panic among the people because most of them had severe joint pain (arthralgia) even after fever subsided, Mr. Mercier said.

He alleged that the paracetamol supplied at the CHC was of poor quality and demanded that fresh medicines be procured. He said the CHC was perennially short of paracetamol vials, analgesics and oral rehydration salts.

Fogging

The representatives of the local bodies complained that fogging was not being done regularly and the absence of a doctor at the centre at night was creating problems for the public. They demanded permanent measures to resolve the drinking water shortage and lack of sanitation, which were at the root of all health problems in the area.

They also demanded that the authorities post 10 doctors to the centre, as promised by the District Collector.

However, it was pointed out by the authorities that this could not be a permanent arrangement. Currently, the additional services of four doctors had been made available, and given the current shortage of doctors in Health Service, it would be difficult to depute more of them.

The local bodies promised to repair the doctors' residential quarters immediately. It was decided at the meeting that the district health administration would hand over the money for buying medicines to the panchayat authorities. This would ensure that there were no procedural delays.

The district health administration will organise special medical camps at Vizhinjam for treating people who have recovered from chikungunya but have arthralgia. The Athiyannoor block will buy insecticide-and-larvicide spraying machines for its panchayats, apart from two portable fogging machines. Activities for destroying mosquito larvae will be intensified.

District Collector N. Ayyappan chaired the meeting. District Medical Officer E.K. Madhavan, Pannian Raveendran, MP, and City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham participated.

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