One fever death was reported in Kumaranallore and at least 1,195 cases of fever were reported from the 79 public health centres in the district on Friday.
The deceased has been identified as Moni (60), wife of Thomas of Kunnukalayil House, at SH Mount on the outskirts of the town. The authorities confirmed two cases of dengue on Friday. At least 69 suspected cases of dengue were reported.
The health scenario in the district looks grim with no effective steps being taken to bring private sector hospitals in the campaign against the fever outbreak. A large number of patients depend on private hospitals for treatment. However, these fever cases are not included in official statistics. There are allegations that private sector hospitals have refused to admit people with fever.
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Private hospitals allegedly refer acute cases to government medical college hospitals after providing treatment for a few days. The rising number of fever deaths at the medical college hospital has been attributed to this trend.
District Collector Ajit Kumar said a meeting would be convened on Monday to make private sector hospitals part of the disease prevention drive. “The administration will give them all possible assistance,” he said.
In addition to the official machinery, civil society institutions would be roped in for the effective implementation of the anti-fever campaign, he said. The focus would be to relieve the Government Medical College hospital which was over-crowded with fever patients.
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Taluk hospitals and the district hospital were provided with adequate support systems to cope with the fever epidemic. Private hospitals could refer cases to these centres, Mr. Kumar said.
“We have to decentralise the disease management efforts,” he said.
A meeting of officials and people’s representatives convened by Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan to chart out strategies at the assembly segment level decided to reinforce the staff strength of nurses, cleaners and lab assistants at the district hospital temporarily.
Sufficient stock of medicines had been made available. He said a meeting of staff at private clinical laboratories would be convened to lower the fee for laboratory tests.