Even as the Health Department continues the surveillance, quarantine and observation of people in the State with a recent travel history to China, given the speed with which the 2019-nCoV (novel Coronavirus) has been spreading across the globe and the surprisingly high number of people coming into the State from China, one should naturally expect to find a positive case sooner or later, infectious diseases experts believe.
Till Monday, the Health Department has located 436 people in the State with a recent travel history to China. Five of them, with mild flu-like symptoms, have been put in isolation wards in hospitals as a matter of “abundant caution”. The rest (431) have been advised home quarantine for 28 days from the day of their departure from China.
Local health workers will be in touch with these persons for daily follow-up.
Advisories
The department has issued separate advisories for those on home quarantine as well as the general public. Any query should be addressed to the 24x7 helpline Disha (0471-2552056 / 1056).
Outbreak Monitoring Units (OMUs) were set up in all Medical Colleges in the State which had to maintain a high level of alert and monitor patients in emergency wing and OP clinics, triage them and isolate those with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as they could be the “super-spreaders” in any infectious disease outbreaks.
“When the alert on nCoV came, all hospitals had already been revising and updating their emergency preparedness measures, infection control protocols and conducting mock drills to test the alertness of healthcare workers because after two consecutive years of dealing with Nipah, December-May is a period when the entire health system is put on Nipah-alert. OMUs in MCHs are all geared up to handle any health emergencies,” a senior Infectious Diseases expert at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, said.
Central team
A team of doctors, deputed by the Union Health Ministry, arrived in Kochi on Monday. The Central team examined the passenger manifests and details of 178 passengers who were screened by the airport health officers.
The team comprising Dr. Pushpendra Kumar Verma, Pulmonologist, Lady Harding Medical College, Delhi, Dr. Ramesh Chandra Meena, Internal Medicine Specialist, Safdurjung Hospital, Delhi and Dr. Shoukathali, Deputy Director, National Centre for Disease control, Kozhikode. Dr. Hamsa Koya and Dr. Raphel Teddy.
Later, the team also examined the medical college facilities.
