Call for effective steps in wake of sharp rise in infectious disease rate

KOCHI: In the wake of the sharp increase in communicable diseases and death rate in 2017, the state government has instructed the local self- government department and other  departments to take effective measures to prevent and control infectious diseases.

The jump in communicable disease and death rate  last year  compared to previous years has forced the government to issue a circular in this respect.   In 2017, as many as 37 dengue deaths were  reported with 19, 994 confirmed cases as against 21 deaths and 7218 confirmed cases  in 2016. The number of fever deaths was 18 in 2016 while it  increased to 110 in 2017. There has been considerable increase in the number of deaths due to H1N1, diphtheria, typhoid, leptospirosis, hepatitis A and hepatitis B.

During a meeting of department heads convened by the chief minister in December last and another meeting convened by Mr K.T Jaleel,  minister for local self- government, in January, it was  decided to conduct a year-long communicable disease prevention campaign called ‘Arogya Jagrutha.’

Sanitation squads have to be formed in all wards in local bodies. There should be  one squad each for 25 families in villages and  50 families in town areas. The squads have been assigned with sanitation mapping, awareness creation, household visits, vector control, ensuring quality of drinking water, encouraging waste treatment at source and campaigning against waste dumping in open spaces.

The local bodies have to ban the use of plastic carry bags with thickness of less than 50 microns,  clean drains, roads and canals, identify vulnerable areas of communicable disease, maintain  drinking water pipelines and implement  green protocol. Public participation will be ensured in carrying out the Arogya Jagrutha programme.