The Hindu : Malaria threat over district

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 12, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Malaria threat over district

By M. Dinesh Varma

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Aug. 11. The district health administration has tightened disease surveillance following the resurfacing of malaria and Weil's Disease in the district.

According to health officials, there have been 21 confirmed cases of malaria, the latest outbreak emerging from the Vidura area where four cases have been confirmed as malaria.

Most cases are in the `imported' category, where the victims got infected while in transit outside the State.

Though there is no clustering in the disease pattern, health officials have launched a combination of preventive and aggressive measures, ranging from creating public awareness to launching larvicidal operations to control the mosquito population.

The District Medical officer, K. Shailaja, identified Leptospirosis and malaria as the chief health concerns in the district. There have also been over 70 Leptospirosis cases while there have been 21 cases of Malaria reported between January and July this year.

The other important disease concerns in Thiruvananthapuram in the January-June period include acute diarrhoeal disorders, acute respiratory infections, chicken pox, and enteric fever.

Meanwhile, there have been reports of Dengue infections from Kottayam, Idukki and Ernakulam though no Dengue case has so far been reported in Thiruvananthapuram.

The Director of Health Services, V. K. Rajan, said the district disease surveillance programme, already in place in 12 districts, was expected to map a comprehensive disease profile Statewide, strengthen monitoring and formulate action-plans.

The surveillance scheme, formulated with the assistance of the National Disease Surveillance Programme of the Government of India, works on a reporting mechanism from specially trained physicians of Government and private hospitals who have been given pre-paid postal cards with a fixed proforma.

So far, the major lacuna of public health management has been the inconsistent feedback on diseases.

Experts point out that disease surveillance is integral to any meaningful health delivery system in order to monitor disease patterns, plan disease control programmes and evaluate prevention strategies. Surveillance is an on-going system of monitoring the incidence or prevalence of diseases in the community based on which preventive measures are planned and implemented.

A surveillance system should aim at furnishing up-to-date inputs in the state of infectious diseases for control and prevention besides to facilitate policy framing, it is pointed out.

Meanwhile, in Thiruvananthapuram, district-level rapid response teams headed by the DMO have been on alert since the advent of the South West monsoon.

These task forces have been set up to move into any fresh site of outbreak of a communicable disease and cut off a possible epidemic in the area.

According to the DMO, the coordination of other departments was integral to any longscale programme to bring down prevalence levels of communicable diseases in the community.

A greater role for local bodies in public health management would limit the Health Department's role to that of a facilitator.

It is pointed out that the maintenance of environmental hygiene, sanitation standards and provision of safe water supply should ideally involve a higher degree of multi- sectoral sharing of responsibility as far as efficient public health management is concerned.

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Malaria threat over district