Thiruvananthapuram: With fever cases and deaths continuing unabated in the state, health experts have called for a comprehensive policy to deal with the problem. The high incidence of life style diseases has compounded the problem manifold. Those with high cholesterol, sugar levels and blood pressure have low resistance level and are more vulnerable to mortality and morbidity due to fever. Experts say the existing system lacked professionalism, commitment, orientation and accountability, something the state cannot afford especially in the wake of alarming increase in fever cases, dengue,chikungunya, leptospirosis, hepatitis A and B, malaria and scrub typhus.
They attribute the recurring and growing cases of communicable diseases to the failure of authorities to lay more focus on surveillance and preventive measures. The state has always faced shortage of professionals trained exclusively in public health management. The absence of such professionals is felt mainly during monsoon season when fever and infectious diseases shoot up alarmingly. It is felt that special teams of experts at the state and district level should be entrusted with the task of carrying out disease prevention and control programmes.
Apart from public health officials, operational experts who are good at managing, organising such activities and motivating the ground staff, also need to be roped in for the exercise. Though the health department had set up monitoring cells at the state and district level on Monday, experts say more than monitoring what is required on the ground is rapid response teams to counter recurring incidence of communicable diseases. At the moment the authorities are resorting to knee jerk reaction in the wake of outbreak of diseases. There is absence of effective crisis management system.
