Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Epidemic blown out of proportion: Kodela

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD July 26. The Health Minister, K. Sivaprasada Rao, has sought to play down the seriousness of the viral fever deaths in the State, saying the problem was much less than in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

Thousands of cases were recorded in these States while it was only a few hundred in AP, he told a Continuous Medical Education (CME) programme on liver diseases organised by Osmania Medical College (OMC) here on Saturday.

Recalling his talk with senior Secretaries of various Central Government Departments during his interaction with them at Delhi three days ago, Dr. Rao said the problem in AP was blown out of proportion because the State Government was forthcoming to project the issue to the public. It wanted to create an awareness among the people and protect them against the dangers of the epidemic.

Dr. Rao said the Government was seriously concerned about the viral fevers. The Government was all the more alarmed about the water-borne Hepatitis-B whose incidence was increasing.

The Government had targeted to cover children in all districts with Hepatitis-B vaccination by November-end under the programme funded by Bill Gates Foundation.

The Government was planning to promote organ transplantation. A meeting of the Health, Transport and Home Department officials next month would come up with proposals to amend the transplantation act, he added.

The Vice-Chancellor of NTR Health University, G. Sham Sunder, the Director of Medical Education, G. Srinath, and the Principal of Osmania Medical College, V. Muralimohan, spoke.

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