State entomological profile 'outdated'

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MARCH 5. The State entomological profile, the most crucial element in the fight against communicable diseases like gastroenteritis and malaria, is outdated and has no worthwhile information on the mosquito species.

``The voluminous profile running into hundreds of pages has nothing concrete to offer for a scientific and planned approach to combat communicable diseases. Some of the studies date back to the British period. Shockingly, there are no mappings of the mosquito species done after 1991,'' said former IAS officer and the director of a voluntary body, Institute for Health Systems, Dr. Prashant Mahopatro, at an expert committee meeting on communicable diseases (Malaria, Japanese encephalitis, dengue and gastroenteritis) organised by the Directorate of Health here on Monday.

``Unless we have a comprehensive local data, how can we go about fighting these diseases?'' he sought to know, adding that the State Government was totally dependent on the reports released by the World Health Organisation on the status of communicable diseases in developing nations. ``These are too general in nature without any specific information about Andhra Pradesh.''

Prof. Nagabhushana Rao, Head, Pediatrics, Niloufer Hospital, said a study on the mortality rate of children done by the hospital some time ago had revealed that it was ``not diseases that were killing the infants, but preventable complications by medical personnel that was doing the damage.''

Dr. Jaipal Reddy, Director, Health, called for short term and long term district-specific action plans for effective control of communicable diseases. He said the expert committee members would also visit problematic districts - Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and East Godavari - for study of tribal and urban malaria; Anantapur, Chittoor, Cuddapah and Kurnool for Japanese encephalitis, dengue and rural malaria; Adilabad, Warangal and Khammam for tribal malaria and G.E.; Rangareddy, Hyderabad and Mahabubnagar districts for gastroenteritis - for an indepth study.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : 40 taken ill due to water contamination
Next     : Tigress killing: investigation in full swing