Kerala - Alappuzha   

Central team in Alappuzha

ALAPPUZHA: Even as State Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy assured that the cholera outbreak in the district was under control, a team of experts deputed by the Union government arrived here on Thursday to take stock of the situation.

The team, comprising National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), New Delhi, joint director Avdesh Kumar, Harish Gupta (NICD), Shyamal Biswas (NICD), R. Rajendran (NICD) and deputy directors of the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, T. Ramamurthy and Dipika Sur, arrived at 4 p.m. and held meetings with District Collector P. Venugopal and district health officials.

The team, which is expected to be in the district for five days, is learnt to have collected data on the current situation, particularly the cholera outbreak in Kuttanad, the general occurrence of water-borne diseases in the district and the various statistics that are available with the district machinery.

The team has also asked for addresses of those who were diagnosed with cholera and that of Savitri, who died of cholera earlier this week.

According to Dr. Raghunath, the Central team on Friday will visit hospitals where cholera and diarrhoeal disease patients have been admitted apart from inspecting the affected areas.

The Central teams visit comes in the wake of Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s promise that a Central medical team would be sent to check the spread of diseases in Alappuzha and to work out long-term measures to arrest the trend. Mr. Azad’s assurance came after K.C. Venugopal and Kodikunnil Suresh, MPs from the district, met him seeking Central assistance to tackle the spread of diseases in the region.

Ms. Sreemathy, addressing a press conference earlier in the day, said the State would welcome any measure of help from the Centre.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Year-long fete to mark K.R. Gouri’s birthday
Central team in Alappuzha
Epidemic situation under control: Sreemathy
Body found
‘Special project to be drawn up’

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu