Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 28 (PTI) Kerala Minister K Muraleedharan on Sunday said the state health department was fully prepared to deal with infectious diseases, such as Nipah and Shigella infections.
Shigella is a highly contagious bacterial infection that primarily spreads through contaminated food, water or poor hygiene and causes diarrhoea, fever and stomach cramps.
Nipah is a zoonotic viral disease that spreads from animals to humans and can also be transmitted through close human-to-human contact.
The infection can cause severe respiratory illness and encephalitis, and has a fatality rate.
He said the department should continue strengthening precautionary measures even though Kerala has not reported a polio case in the past 26 years.
The minister
was speaking after inaugurating the state-level launch of the Pulse Polio immunisation programme at the Women and Children Hospital in Thycaud, according to a statement.
Keeping future risks in mind, preventive measures should continue to be strengthened, he said, adding that the government would continue to strengthen the public healthcare sector.
Muraleedharan said projects to keep rivers and streams free of waste and ensure food safety would be implemented in coordination with local self-government institutions.
He also said efforts were underway to secure approval for Thiruvananthapuram’s second medical college later this year.
The minister inaugurated the programme by administering polio drops to children at the Women and Children Hospital here.
Earlier, the health department had said that polio drops would be administered to 19,80,224 children below the age of five across the state.
A total of 22,288 booths and 46,663 trained volunteers were deployed for the campaign.
The cooperation of government and private hospitals, anganwadis, health centres, schools and libraries had also been ensured, the statement added. PTI LGK SSK
