Kerala to Set Up District-Level Committees to Strengthen Epidemic Prevention

Kerala will establish coordination committees chaired by District Collectors to reinforce epidemic prevention at the local level, Health Minister K. Muraleedharan said after an epidemic review meeting on Monday.

The Principal Secretary (Health) has been directed to take the necessary steps for constituting these committees. The review also called for setting up bodies at the grassroots within local bodies, bringing together councillors and panchayat members, office-bearers of residents' associations and health workers.

Under the plan, dengue hotspots will be identified and mosquito control measures stepped up. To counter water stagnation caused by intermittent rains and to break mosquito breeding cycles, dry days will be observed weekly — on Fridays in educational institutions, Saturdays at workplaces and Sundays in households — during which all potential breeding sources are to be eliminated. An action plan for this will be drawn up in consultation with the Local Self-Government Minister.

The meeting further directed that preventive activities be intensified in line with the epidemic calendar, and that fever clinics in affected areas be strengthened, with new ones opened where required. The Minister said meetings of District Medical Officers and District Programme Managers will be convened in the coming days to review day-to-day grassroots activities.

Among those who attended the review were Principal Secretary (Health) Sharmila Mary Joseph; S. S. Lal, Chairman of the Health Department High-Power Committee; Director of Health Services V. Meenakshy; Director of Medical Education K. V. Viswanathan; Aravind R., Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College; and A. Althaf, Special Officer of the Kerala Centre for Disease Control.