Having learnt lessons from the high incidence of seasonal diseases, especially viral fevers that had kept the officials on their toes last year, the district administration is gearing up to check the spread of the ailments well in advance.
Agency vulnerable
With the hot weather conditions prevailing since the last few weeks and cases of viral fevers and other diseases surfacing again, especially in the rural pockets and in the Agency areas, the District Medical and Health Department has drawn up an action plan to prevent it from becoming an alarming issue.
According to health officials, with the mercury levels rising, cases of diarrhoea and viral fevers have started to surface. Moreover, after a couple of showers in between, cases of dengue, malaria and other water-borne diseases are being reported at various hospitals and health centres in the Agency areas.
Medical camps
It is learnt that State-level and district level coordination meetings have discussed the issue and an action plan has also been drawn to check the spread of the diseases.
“We have started receiving viral fever cases in the Agency. Our teams have been instructed to set up medical camps where more than four viral fever cases or others have been reported,” District Medical and Health Officer (DM&HO) S. Tirupathi Rao told The Hindu.
Adequate stocks of medicines and IV fluids have been ensured at all the 88 PHCs in the district. Referring to the malaria and dengue, he said chlorination of wells and other water sources will be undertaken to check breeding of mosquitoes. “Mobile Malaria Dengue Clinics (MMDC) will be deployed in the urban limits as cases of malaria are more here than the agency,” he said.
Surveillance in city
Meanwhile, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner M. Hari Narayanan has asked the officials to conduct active and passive surveillance to arrest the seasonal fevers in the limits of the civic body. The Saadhikara Mitras, ASHA workers of the GVMC have been instructed to conduct door-to-door campaigns for identification of seasonal diseases and create awareness on the precautionary measures.
GVMC Chief Medical and Health Officer Hemanth said that the implementation of the disease control measures used to start by June. “But this year, we have started it from March itself. For every 1,000 persons or 250 households, an ASHA or an anganwadi worker will be engaged to create awareness.