The Hindu : IMA to launch SARS sensitising programme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

IMA to launch SARS sensitising programme

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 1. The State unit of the IMA will launch a sensitising programme for doctors on guidelines for SARS detection and management to strengthen preventive measures against the killer virus.

As part of the exercise, the organisation will despatch pamphlets on SARS to an estimated 20,000 doctors across the State. The 86 IMA units will also conduct awareness programmes aimed at various sections of society, ranging from physicians and transport officials to the general public.

The IMA has also underscored the need to step up screening across ports, railway stations and important bus terminals to effectively check the entry of the killer-virus, which had the potential to wreak havoc in a State with a largely mobile population.

The IMA has constituted a SARS Control Cell which is to be headed by V. Mohanan Nair, of the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies under the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology.

The IMA has also volunteered to adopt a more proactive role in SARS control activities and help the Government initiatives in this regard.

The IMA has called for establishing a State-level Communicable Diseases Control centre, which can evolve standard management protocols and coordinate interventionary and preventive measures against new and re-emerging scourges. It was also vital for this centre to have a full-fledged virology wing to undertake confirmatory tests, the IMA said.

T. Suresh Kumar, IMA State Secretary, said the only chance of preventing the entry of the virus into the State was through a strong foolproof surveillance mechanism.

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