Tamil Nadu govt set up health clinics to check water-borne diseases

The Public Health Office is monitoring the situation in Chennai and adjacent areas of the district where incessant rains have caused waterlogging, leading to the possibility of outbreak of water-borne diseases.  

Health Secretary J.A. Radhakrishnan in a letter addressed to the district collectors said that 416 mobile medical units and 770 jeep-borne units have been deployed for the exercise.

State Health Minister Ma Subramanian told IANS, "The Health Department is running mobile health clinics across the state, while mobile ambulances have also been deployed in all the districts. We are closely monitoring if people are getting infected by any rain-related diseases. The Covid situation is also being closely monitored."

Rains are also leading to itching, diarrhea, fever and other diseases and state health department is closely monitoring the situation. The Health Secretary said that Tamil Nadu is fully equipped to tackle any health emergency and that the state has ample stock of medicines.

With Covid-19 also not completely off the system, the Health Department is taking extra caution as the rain-affected areas are bound to feel the impact in the next few days.

In a related development, the Health Department in association with the local bodies is planning to vaccinate street dwellers. Given the heavy rains and the fact that the street dwellers stay together, the possibility of them getting infected by Covid-19 is on the higher side.

A doctor attached to a mobile vaccination unit in Madurai told IANS: "These street dwellers do not have any records, including Aadhaar or any other ID card. This could be overcome by allotting some temporary ID cards but the point is once they are given the first dose, locating them for the second dose would be impossible as most of them travel across the state as well as in the neigbhouring states.

"The government will have to relocate and rehabilitate them in order to administer the second dose, so that they don't get infected in the future," the doctor added.

The District Medical Officers have been briefed to stock ample antibiotics, intravenous fluids, tetanus toxoid, anti-snake venom during the rainy season.

The Health Department has directed all the private hospitals to stock sufficient emergency medicines and maintain the stock of oxygen cylinders for any emergency.

The Health Department has also requested all the private hospitals to have proper generators as the possibility of power outage due to heavy rains is high.