Pics: Arun Uppinangady
Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)
Puttur, Jun 12: State health and family welfare minister Sriramulu, who paid a visit to Uppinangady primary health centre along with Puttur MLA Mallika Prasad on Wednesday June 11, met chikungunya patients and discussed the arrangements made to combat the chikungunya menace.
He promised to start medical service counters at all the government hospitals of the chikungunya infested taluks of Dakshina Kannada district for attending to chikungunya patients. These will be open round the clock, the minister stated.
For effective relief operations, government medical officers from other districts where chikungunya has not been rampant, will be deputed to these hospitals and 850 vacancies of medical officers posts in the state will be filled by July first week, Sriramulu assured.
Apart from providing ambulances to all the health centres, the number of mobile health units will be increased. 'We have instructed the medical officers to be available for serving the patients all through the day without any time limit,' the minister said.
Chief secretary of the state health department Dr Madan Gopal who accompanied the minister said that the presence of chikungunya has been confirmed in about 9,800 people of the district and the disease is prevalent in Sakleshpur and Dakshina Kannada districts. Sriramalu said that the health department is striving to ensure cleanliness and eradicating mosquitoes in these taluks and urged people to extend their support to the cause.
The minister later visited Sullia and participated in a consultative meeting on chikungunya. He promised to hold discussions with the chief minister and take a decision on providing medicines and rice for a couple of months to the families, which have been rendered unable to earn because of the disease.
During a press meet held at Subrahmanya later, the minister said that he will be collecting details of the health benefits being extended by Andhra Pradesh government to citizens who even suffer cardiac arrests and kidney failures etc, and promised to explore the possibility of expanding the scope of Yashaswini health card scheme of the state to cover these ailments, after attending a huge health meet being conducted at Hyderabad on Thursday June 12.