With fever cases on a rapid rise in the city, hospitals and health care centres are setting up fever clinics for ensuring better treatment for the patients and to mitigate the contagion of the disease.
Special fever clinics were set up at the 15 primary health centres under the National Health Mission (NHM) here on Sunday, with 397 patients being diagnosed with fever on the first day of operation. Among these, 42 cases were referred to the Government General Hospital for expert consultation.
A majority of the patients were affected by viral or dengue fever, an NHM official said.
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The fever clinics at the NHM centres will be operational from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. everyday, until the number of fever cases normalises.
SAT, Medical College
Special fever clinics and fever wards for women and children were set up at the Sree Avittom Thirunal (SAT) Hospital here on Saturday. The children’s fever clinic operates next to the local OP section. Patients will be treated at the clinic when the capacity of the OP section is exceeded.
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For fever patients who come in after the OP hours, a special arrangement has been made at the children’s casualty section, with more doctors deployed in the section for this purpose.
The Government Medical College Hospital is also set to be equipped with a fever clinic, a fever ward and a crisis management team.
The fever clinic, which will function from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. beginning Monday, is located next to the Casualty section. Several doctors including those from the Community Medicine Department will be deployed at the clinic.
Ward number 22 will be turned into a fever ward, equipped with mosquito nets and other facilities.
Vector control
The NHM undertook source reduction activities for vector control at the Chirakkulam colony area on Sunday. Health workers under the mission visited houses in the area to identify and clean up breeding areas, and educated the residents regarding the need to ensure that water is not collected in open spaces, in order to prevent the breeding of the Aedes mosquitoes.
Over 30 nursing students also participated in the campaign.