A team of community medicine experts from the Regional Prevention of Epidemic and Infectious Disease (RPEID) cell at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Kozhikode, visited the orphanage at Pappinippara, near Manjeri, as part of enhanced vigil against diphtheria in the district.
The team headed by coordinator M.P. Lailabi collected throat swabs of 26 students at the orphanage and conducted an awareness session for the students there.
Two students at the orphanage had been admitted to the MCH with diphtheria. Although the district medical authorities had swung into action by giving TD vaccine to other students at the orphanage, the fear and suspicion it triggered continued to linger.
Dr. Lailabi said the RPEID cell reached the orphanage with the presumption that the carriers of the diphtheria bacteria might still be on the campus. She said it was not clear yet from where the disease emerged and who brought it to the orphanage.
Dr. Lailabi said the swabs had been collected to ascertain if there were any carriers among them. District medical authorities have, meanwhile, strengthened their fight against diphtheria. As many as 1.5 lakh TD vaccines will soon be distributed in high risk blocks across the district.
District Medical Officer K. Sakeena said the TD vaccine would be given as a booster dose against diphtheria in areas where the disease was detected in recent times and among those groups who had either resisted vaccination or had missed out in getting diphtheria vaccine.