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.