THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With cases of dengue, leptospirosis and influenza-like illnesses increasing in Kerala following the onset of monsoon, the state government has stepped up disease prevention and control activities to check the mortality and morbidity due to these diseases.
Hundreds of people report at the fever clinics with suspected symptoms of dengue, rat fever and influenza-like illnesses in various hospitals. Given the heavy rush of patients, hospitals have been asked to set up fever wards and ensure supply of medicines.
Critical care management facilities are also being scaled up. Hospitals have been given treatment protocols and SOPs to deal with various kinds of fever.
The health officials have been asked to intensify source destruction in collaboration with local bodies to prevent the spread of dengue fever. Sanitisation activities will also be scaled up in hospitals.
Fever cases figure in Assembly
Health Minister Veena George told the Assembly on Tuesday that the fever situation in the state was fully under control. She slammed the Congress-led opposition UDF for raising a false alarm.
According to her, the number of fever cases during the first six months this year stood at 12.02 lakh compared to 13.1 lakh in the first six months of 2015 when the Congress-led UDF was in power. Besides, the dengue fatality rate had come down to 0.25 per cent in 2024 from 0.34 per cent in 2015.
The opposition rejected the claims of the government and accused the health department of failing to control the infectious diseases that had gripped the state. Opposition leader V D Satheeshan blamed the government for the current situation. “The government had failed miserably in carrying out pre-monsoon cleaning activities effectively across the state. The situation was aggravated with the onset of monsoon.
The government attributed the lack of an effective pre-monsoon cleanliness drive to the model code of conduct that was in place for the Lok Sabha polls. According to the local bodies minister, the ministers and MLAs could not convene meetings to plan the cleanliness drives due to the bar. However, the opposition rejected the claim, saying there was no bar for the officials to plan and execute pre-monsoon activities.
