Thiruvananthapuram: The Health Minister has appealed to hospitals in the private sector to help the Health Department's efforts to control the spread of viral fever in the district by providing the service of doctors and other hospital facilities.

The district health administration officials, MLAs and representatives of various private hospitals in the city took part in a meeting chaired by District Collector N. Ayyappan here on Saturday to discuss the strategies to be adopted to prevent the spread of dengue and chikungunya in the district.

Ms. Sreemathy pointed out that while adequate number of nurses had been posted in the district, shortage of doctors continued to be a problem.

In the event of an outbreak of infectious diseases, more doctors would be required to serve in the fever-affected areas.

Currently, fever cases were being reported mostly from Kuttichal, Poovachal, Amachal, Vembayam, Vellarada areas and a few cases from Vizhinjam too.

Confirmed cases

Six confirmed cases of chikungunya were reported from Poovachal and Aamachal so far.

If there is an outbreak of viral fever in an area, the near-by private hospitals could help the district administration by opening special wards for chikungunya patients, she suggested.

Private hospitals could also help by conducting medical camps in their locality and by coordinating with the local bodies in organising cleaning and sanitation drives, it was pointed out.

Ward-level health and sanitation committees were formed in all wards in the district and these have been provided Rs. 5,000 each for local health action. Spraying and fogging machines would also be provided.

The MLAs who took part in the meeting, V. Sivankutty, G. Karthikeyan, George Mercier, V. Surendran Pillai, said the Government machinery was quite inadequate, especially in coastal and tribal areas to handle an epidemic situation.

There were no health institutions offering 24-hour care in the entire coastal belt.

Awareness campaigns

They also demanded that more medical camps, sanitation drives and awareness campaigns on source reduction or elimination of breeding grounds for mosquitoes be conducted in the district. More mosquito nets should be provided to people in fever-affected areas.

The district health administration has decided to observe the week between June 5 and June 12 as total sanitation and cleanliness drive week.

Sanitation

Senior health officials pointed out that chikungunya and dengue were basically a problem of lack of sanitation. Unless the local bodies and the public took a conscientious effort to maintain environmental hygiene, the Health department's efforts to control the spread of infectious diseases will not be effective.

All primary health centres in the district were already given Rs. 25,000 as `untied fund' from the National Rural Health Mission for local health action. It was the responsibility of panchayat presidents to ensure that these funds were utilised meaningfully to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases, However, this did not seem to be happening, it was pointed out.

The officials also clarified that infectious diseases, including chikungunya, was currently very much under control in the district.

However, the intermittent rain now could alter the picture quite fast and hence this was the time for epidemic preparedness, officials said.

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