District Medical Officer K. Venugopal on Thursday said 412 cases of anaemia and 67 cases of malnutrition had been detected in a health survey at Attappady.
Till Wednesday, the survey had covered 20,613 tribal people in 6,619 houses, he said at a meeting convened by District Collector P.M. Ali Asgar Pasha here on Thursday. The meeting was called to review measures in the wake of deaths of tribal children due to alleged malnutrition. Dr. Venugopal said steps were being taken to provide nutritious food to the tribal children and pregnant women at least twice a week at Attappady.
The Kudumbasree district coordinator said at the meeting that while 4,000 kg of nutritious food was distributed at Attappady in 2008, it came down to 2,110 kg in 2011.
He said the food supply was reduced and stopped in 2012 as the three grama panchayats at Attappady did not provide funds for the purpose. Presiding over the meeting, the District Collector said the health survey would be completed on Friday and a health camp to screen the identified cases of anaemia and malnutrition would be held at the Kottathara tribal specialty hospital on Saturday.
