The health awareness campaign of the Kochi Corporation, in the wake of monsoon, will be launched next week. This includes cleaning drives and mobile medical camps mainly intended to prevent any outbreak of contagious diseases during the monsoon.  According to Corporation officials, sanitation committees have been formed in all the divisions and three dry days were observed in each division under the Corporation.

“We are planning to launch mobile homeo camps at busy areas in the city from June first week. The camps are being organised as part of our pre-monsoon epidemic prevention drive and medicines will be distributed free of cost to the public from our mobile unit. The camps will mainly focus on in places like bus station, boat jetty, railway station and market,” said Kochi Corporation health standing Committee chairman T K Ashraf.

He said that after the three-day camp, the Corporation will also organise awareness campaigns in various colonies across the city to educate the residents on the need for keeping the premises clean and tidy during the rainy season to help prevent outbreak of monsoon-related diseases.

Last year during the monsoon, an average of 708 cases of fever and monsoon-related diseases were reported from various parts of the district. The health officials believe that this year, the number of cases are likely to decrease as the Department has already launched necessary preventive measures.

Regarding the preventive measures to curb mosquito menace, Ashraf said that the decentralised mosquito control measures will ensure that mosquito breeding is curbed. “The sanitation committee will be in charge of making sure that the health awareness programmes are carried out in their respective divisions. The pre-monsoon epidemic prevention drive is being carried out with the support of  National Rural Health Mission (NRHM),” he said.