State task force calls for anti-larval drive, study on dog bite deaths

Strict measures, including anti-larval operations, should be taken to prevent mosquito breeding and control vector-borne diseases, and a study should be conducted to examine deaths caused by dog bites in the State, said Senior Regional Director, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, covering Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, M. Anuradha.

She is a member of a State-level task force committee constituted by the government to strengthen measures for the prevention and control of communicable diseases. The 24-member task force, headed by Health and Family Welfare Commissioner G. Veerapandian, was constituted following instructions issued by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and includes national experts and officials from various departments.

The first meeting of the task force was held virtually on Tuesday evening, during which experts offered suggestions on steps to prevent infectious diseases in the State. The committee will meet once every three months to review the status of communicable diseases and the implementation of preventive measures.

Referring to the recent reporting of scrub typhus cases in Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Anuradha said there was a need to raise public awareness about the disease and its preventive measures. She also stressed the need for a study to identify the reasons for children being affected by leprosy.

Later, Infection Control Academy of India Director Ranga Reddy suggested the formation of a committee comprising officials from the Health, Municipal and Panchayati Raj Departments to inspect hostel facilities regularly, once every 15 days initially and later once a month, to improve hostel conditions.

Chiranjay Mukhopadhyay, Professor of Microbiology at Kasturba Medical College in Karnataka, said special fever clinics should be organised every year in Turakapalem, where a health emergency was declared following the deaths of 29 persons over five months. He also called for upgrading laboratories with modern facilities to enable testing of samples collected from local areas.

Responding to this, an official from the Animal Husbandry Department said sero-monitoring and sero-surveillance were being conducted for brucellosis, a zoonotic disease transmitted from animals to humans. So far, 2,061 samples have been tested, and zoonotic tests conducted in Turakapalem have yielded negative results.

Concluding the virtual meeting, Mr. Veerapandian said efforts would be made to implement the action points discussed at the first task force meeting within four weeks. Officials, including Director of Public Health Padmavathi, participated in the meeting.