The Health Department will engage special medical teams to hold screening camps in areas where migrant labourers are residing in large numbers as part of Jagratha, an infectious diseases prevention, control, and awareness creation drive being initiated by the department, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar has said.
Health screening camps would be organised all through monsoon in districts such as Kannur, Kasaragod, Malappuram, and Kozhikode where there are more migrant labour camps, he said, while inaugurating a screening programme in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
According to reports, there are over 25 lakh migrant labourers in thousands of labour camps in Kerala. The drive against infectious diseases will not be complete unless the health care requirements of this group are taken care of. The Labour Department’s help will be sought so that the employers maintain hygiene and sanitation in these camps.
Health screening camps will be conducted again in the labour camps across the State on July 5 and 12. Hundreds of camps were held across the State on Sunday.
Infectious diseases can be prevented only if the local bodies, the Health and allied departments work in coordination, the Minister said.
In urban spaces
Infectious diseases seem to be surging in towns and cities, where garbage disposal and solid waste management need to be a priority.
This will be discussed at the review meeting to be convened by the Chief Minister on July 1, Mr. Sivakumar said.
On July 3, the corporations and municipalities will meet to chalk out action plans.
The Minister said the Kerala Medical Services Corporation had stocked 206 drugs worth Rs.30 crore in its warehouses to meet the infectious diseases challenge. Some 2.7 lakh tablets of Oseltamivir had been made available at the Karunya pharmacies from where private hospitals may purchase, the Minister said.
