With a fortnight left for the onset of the monsoon, the civic authorities are planning a massive health care drive in the city to prevent the outbreak of monsoon-related diseases.
Dividing the city into six regions, the health wing of the Kochi Corporation will organise homoeo health camps to distribute preventive medicines.
The medicines would be distributed to city residents as well as to the floating population in the city, said T.K. Ashraf, chairman of the Health Standing Committee of the corporation.
The camp will be launched during the last week of the month.
The health officials will cover around one lakh people this time against 60,000 the previous year. The service of 30 doctors and six mobile medical vans of the local body will be utilised for the five-day campaign. The city was relatively free of rain-related diseases last year due to the preventive health care programme organised by the local body, he said.
Dry dayThe local body will also join the ‘dry day’ campaign of the district health authorities by organising similar drives in the city on May 24 and 26. The campaign will focus on preventing the breeding of mosquitoes in households and city areas. The local body had recently acquired four vehicles on which power sprayers can be mounted for fogging operations. They would be deployed in areas where mosquito menace had been reported, he said.
Inspection of hostelsHealth squads of the corporation will inspect hostels for women in the city in the beginning of the academic year. There had been complaints about unhygienic conditions prevailing in a few of them. Earlier, the authorities had cracked down on some hostels which were found functioning in poor conditions, he said.
The drive against eateries and other outlets which fail to maintain hygiene will also continue. Two squads were deployed in the city to check hotels and restaurants. The quality of food and water used in the eateries and their hygienic conditions would be continuously monitored, Mr. Ashraf said.
