Hyderabad, October 26: The State Government will launch a special drive against infectious diseases that are spreading rapidly across the State. This was stated by Chief Minister K Rosaiah after a telephonic conversation on increase in the incidence of infectious diseases with J.Satyanarayana, Principal Secretary, Medical and Health on Sunday.
The Chief Minister called for a high-level meeting to have a detailed review on the subject on Monday, especially with regard to outbreak of dengue and chikungunya. On the reported increasing number of cases of malaria, dengue and chikungunya, the Chief Minister directed that Chief Secretary P Ramakanth Reddy be in constant touch with district collectors to monitor the cases on a day-to-day basis and initiate immediate action to arrest spread of the vector-borne diseases.
Rosaiah also directed the municipal corporations, municipalities and other local bodies to initiate a special drive to ensure sanitation and prevent water stagnation in their respective areas. “Effective maintenance of cleanliness, periodical fogging, regular disposal of garbage and other such measures should be taken up effectively in all the areas and there should be no let up in these efforts,’’ he asserted.
The Chief Minister was particularly concerned about outbreak of diseases in the recent flood-affected areas of Kurnool, Mahaboobnagar, Kadapa, Nalgonda, Krishna and Guntur districts, where there was water stagnation for a long time.
He directed that the officials in these districts should make all out efforts to prevent spreading of diseases and provide effective medication to the affected people.
“The Government has geared up medical and health department officials to meet any eventuality.
So far, they could do an effective job,’’ he said.
The Chief Minister decided in the recent meetings of Medical and Health to include dengue in the list of Arogyasri which enables to serve the common man to a larger extent.
Principal Secretary, Medical & Health J.Satyanarayana has briefed the Chief Minister about the preparedness of those hospitals such as Institute of Tropical Diseases (Fever Hospital), Nallakunta, MGM Hospital, Warangal, Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi Hospital for meeting the requirements for treating dengue.
The Chief Minister has also directed opening of separate ward in the Fever Hospital, Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi Hospital for specialised treatment on dengue.
The officials told the Chief Minister that as far as dengue and chikungunya are concerned, intensified sentinel surveillance activities were initiated to get information of the disease incidence from both the Government and corporate hospitals.
As many as 21 dengue and six chikungunya diagnostic test kits were supplied to sentinel Hospitals for immediate diagnosis, they said.]
—Agencies