After floods, waterborne diseases threaten Kerala; acute shortage of ‘rat fever’ drug

Agencies

September 5, 2018

New Delhi, Sept 5: Flood-ravaged Kerala is facing shortages of a drug that fights an infectious bacterial disease after the worst flooding in a century, forcing authorities to turn to other states to help ramp up supplies.

Suspected cases of leptospirosis, a waterborne disease known locally as ‘rat fever’, has climbed to 800 since mid-August, a health ministry spokesman said. Transmitted via the urine of infected animals, its symptoms include muscle pain and fever.

Confirmed deaths caused by leptospirosis so far total 12, while suspected deaths, pending full medical reports, number 41, the spokesman added.

The surge in cases comes after torrential rain beginning on Aug. 8 flooded almost the entire state, killing hundreds of people, destroying thousands of homes and causing at least 200 billion rupees ($2.81 billion) worth of damage.

Kozhikode district, one of the worst hit by rat fever, is staring at supply shortages as demand for the preventive drug shot up, following a few deaths locally.

Kozhikode corporation needs about 3 million tablets over the next two months, but currently has about 500,000 in stock, said R.S. Gopakumar, its health officer.

“We have got supplies, but the stocks have been depleting fast,” Gopakumar said, as more people are demanding the preventive tablets, which need to be taken once a week for a month.

“Supply shortages are being replenished. Of course the demand has shot up, but we are monitoring daily,” said Saritha R.L., the state’s director of health service.

The state government has sought help from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states, Gopakumar said.

The shortages are, however, not felt across the state.

Palakkad district, bordered on the east by Tamil Nadu, has plenty of stocks, as its proximity to the neighbouring state helped in faster transportation of medical supplies.

“We have excess supply,” said Reetha K.P, district medical officer of Palakkad.

Reetha does not expect a major jump in leptospirosis cases locally, and the district is focusing on vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever instead, as stagnant water breeds mosquitoes.

“We are busy with source reduction activities...,” she said, adding that, unlike leptospirosis, dengue had no preventive vaccine. “All we can do is to keep the intake of fluids high.”

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Never talked about charging migrant labourers; 85% fare borne by railways, 15% by state govts: Centre

Agencies

May 4,2020

New Delhi, May 4: The government has not talked about charging anything from migrant labourers as 85 per cent of the transportation cost is borne by the railways and 15 per cent by state governments, the Centre said on Monday amid a row over the national transporter allegedly charging the workers for ferrying them home during the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

The government also said the process of transporting the stranded migrant labourers was being coordinated by states “except for one or two states”.

Asked if the migrant labourers were being charged for being ferried home, Joint Secretary at the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said that as far as migrant labourers are concerned, the guidelines have clearly stated that under the infectious disease management one should stay where he or she is.

“Based on the request given from states for particular cases, permission was given to run special trains. Be it government of India or the Railways, we have not talked about charging from workers. Eighty-five per cent of the transportation cost is borne by the Railways, while states have to bear 15 per cent of the cost,” he told reporters.

“Based on the request of the states the process that started, under which limited number of stranded migrant labourers have to be transported for a particular reason, is being coordinated by the state governments, except for one or two states,” Agarwal said.

At the daily briefing on the COVID-19 situation, Agarwal also said that in the last 24 hours, 1,074 COVID-19 patients have recovered, the highest number of recoveries in one day.

The recovery rate stands at 27.52 per cent with 11,706 COVID-19 patients cured till now, he said.

Agarwal said in the last 24 hours, 2,553 novel coronavirus cases were reported, taking the number of overall cases to 42,533. The total number of active cases stands at 29,453, he said.

The joint secretary also said that the COVID-19 curve is relatively flat as of now and it was not right to talk in terms of when the peak would come.

“If we collectively work then the peak might not ever come, while if we fail in any way we might experience a spike in cases,” he said.

Amitabh Kant, Chairman of the Empowered Group dealing with civil society, NGOs, industries and international partners, said in 112 aspirational districts, “we worked with the collectors and in these 112 districts only 610 cases have been reported which is two per cent of the national level infection”.

In these 112 districts, 22 per cent of India's population resides, he said.

In a few districts like Baramulla, Nuh Rachi, Kupwara and Jaisalmer more than 30 cases have been reported, while in the rest of the places very few cases are there, Kant said.

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why is no one talking about privatized railways? why Adani is not offering free travel to laborers?

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Possibility of tailwind, reasons for runway change under probe in AIE flight crash

coastaldigest.com news network

August 8,2020

Kozhikode, Aug 8: A tailwind or crosswind could be the reason for the Air India Express flight mishap at Kozhikode international airport in Kerala, according to some aviation experts.

Team of DGCA and AIE already reached the spot. With the death of the captain and co-pilot in the mishap, the investigation would be focusing mainly on the voice recorders and other technical aspects.

It is learnt that the ill-fated aircraft, IX 1344 with 190 onboard including crew, was initially planning to land on runway-28 of the airport. But later the pilot opted runway-10 which is toward the other direction. Pilots would be taking the decisions on the basis of inputs from ATC.

The questions now doing the rounds are what made the pilot opt runway-10 and whether the tabletop runway lacked adequate safety parameters.

An aviation expert, who didn't want to be quoted, said that Capt Deepak Sathe, who was commandeering the aircraft, was a well-experienced pilot and was also familiar with the terrains. Hence the chances of any error from his part was very unlikely. Hence a fair in-depth probe was required to find the exact cause.

Though the Kozhikode airport has an Instrument Landing System, it was of category-I for which pilot's visibility is very crucial toward a touchdown. Since it is a tabletop airport and rough weather prevailing in the region, the chances of tailwind was also high, said sources.

There had been safety concerns about the airport over quite some time. In 2011 aviation safety consultant captain Mohan Ranganathan reportedly gave a report citing the safety issues, especially the buffer zones at the end of the runway.

However, an AAI officer said that rectification steps were already done by last year by widening the Runway End Safety Area (RESA) from 90 metre to 240 metre. However, the length of the runway had to be reduced to 2,700 metre from 2,850. The AAI was also constantly pressing for increasing the runway length to 3,150 metres. But that was getting delayed due to land acquisition issues pending with the state government.

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With highest single-day spike of 49,310 cases, India's COVID-19 tally reaches 12,87,945

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July 24,2020

New Delhi, Jul 24: India reported the highest single-day spike of 49,310 coronavirus cases on Friday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total COVID-19 positive cases stand at 12,87,945 including 4,40,135 active cases, 8,17,209 cured/discharged/migrated.
With 740 deaths in the last 24 hours, the cumulative toll reached 30,601.

Maharashtra has reported 3,47,502 coronavirus cases, the highest among states and Union Territories in the country. A total of 1,92,964 cases have been reported from Tamil Nadu till now, while Delhi has recorded 1,27,364 coronavirus cases.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 3,52,801 samples were tested for coronavirus on Thursday and overall 1,54,28,170 samples have been tested so far.

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