Malappuram: Diphtheria has caught up with two more lives in the district after a break. The test result of a 21-old woman from Thuvvur and a three-and-half-year old boy from a migrant family in Edapatta who were admitted to the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital with symptoms of the deadly disease during the past week has confirmed the infection. District medical officer (DMO) Dr. K. Sakeena said that both were unimmunised. This is the first time the deadly disease is being reported this year.
The health authorities have swung into action after the confirmation of the two cases. They have conducted special vaccination drive at two different places where the cases were reported. “All the immediate contacts of the infected have been administered Td vaccine on Tuesday and Wednesday and preventive measures of the health department are underway,” Dr Sakeena said. The medical authorities had traced 13 suspected cases of diphtheria with symptoms this year at various health blocks in the district during the health department’s routine surveillance drive. They were vaccinated and treated.
“Still there are some resistant pockets in all the health 15 health blocks in the district, which is a concern for the health workers. The efforts to vaccinate the unimmunised or partially immunised children are still going on,” Dr Sakeena said. The authorities have succeeded in vaccinating 1.03 lakh children aged between 7 and 15 during the ongoing drive which was launched last year. However the district has 6,932 unimmunised children in this age group besides 74,894 partially immunised others. At the same time, the immunisation drive had covered 90 per cent of the children aged up to five last year.
