Rain raises fears of epidemic

KOCHI: It seems the authorities would wake up only after an outbreak of communicable diseases. Though much money is being spent for checking monsoon diseases, the authorities have hardly taken any concrete measures in this regard.Though the health authorities and various local bodies should have taken various measures to contain communicable disease during the monsoon, no such steps have been taken in the district. It is up to the civic bodies to organise programmes to clean up drains and shoulders of roads. “Normally such programmes are conducted before June. But this year there wasn’t any such programme. Once there is an outbreak, the authorities will start cleaning and fogging,” said an official with the Health Department.In areas like West Kochi, a cholera outbreak was reported earlier. But the authorities claim that as of now there is no health threat. “We could contain diarrhoea cases reported from West Kochi,” said Dr Sudhakaran, District Medical Officer, Ernakulam. He said that all the hospitals in the district have been asked to keep vigil. District Collector P I Sheik Pareed said that all measures have been taken to check the outbreak of communicable diseases. “We have allotted funds for all the branches including allopathy, ayurveda and homoeopathy for taking preventive measures in this regard,” Shiek Pareed said. “We have supplied medicines and other provisions to the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). In the wake of the H1N1 outbreak in Alappuzha, we have asked the officials with all the taluk hospitals in the district to keep vigil. They have also been asked to arrange isolation wards to meet any emergency,” the Collector said.