Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Health activists to be posted in coastal wards

Staff Reporter

Thiruvananthapuram: The Health Department plans to appoint Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) or community health volunteers in the coastal wards of the Corporation next week, officials said.

As one ASHA is appointed for every 1000 population, about 114 women health volunteers will be appointed.

Health officials said that they were most concerned about the poor hygienic conditions and poor health awareness in coastal areas which often resulted in a drop in immunisation rates. While the department had a good network of junior health inspectors and junior public health nurses, they were unable to visit all households in a ward within a month because of the large geographic area they had to cater to. ASHAs could make up for this gap in service provision.

Meanwhile, five cases of dengue fever, two cases of leptospirosis, one case of malaria and 20 cases of fever suspected to be chikungunya were reported from the district on Thursday.

A total of 2,815 cases of fever were reported on Thursday. So far, the district reported 747 cases of suspected chikungunya. Only ten cases had been confirmed so far.

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