THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The officials are planning to create a volunteer pool under the banner of Arogya Sena with one health volunteer for every 20 households in the district. Presently, there is not even a single asha worker (grass root health workers) for every 1,000 houses. “There has been steady attrition of workers. New ones are not being inducted proportionally by government, due to paucity in funds, mostly under National Rural Health Mission (NHRM). We plan to create a larger pool of volunteers in every area. At least one volunteer will be there to coordinate with us,” said an official said.
Their primary objective will be to visit houses and avoid risky conditions such as vector breeding spots The arogya sena will include Anganwadi workers, asha workers, residence association representatives, women and other Good Samaritans. Early intervention and lapses in surveillance have often been blamed for deaths due to dengue that could have been avoided. “Initially, they will be deployed in high risk areas such as coastal belt,” an official added. At present, the health officials are concentrating on avoiding cholera outbreak in capital as similar cases are being reported from Malabar. “Areas such as Pulluvila and Poovar had in the past experienced Cholera outbreak. We are checking whether eateries in the area are serving boiled water,” officials added.
