KOLKATA: Experts in public health and paediatricians have advised Kolkata Municipal Corporation to conduct special counselling sessions among mothers with kids aged below 12 across the city ahead of the third wave. The KMC doctors associated with the Covid-combat programmes recently held a meeting with paediatricians, including Apurba Ghosh, to chalk out a strategy to prevent anticipated spread of the virus among kids. The experts, sources said, have advised the civic body to pay special attention to slums where the counsellors need to visit and interact with mothers to get medical history of the children.
The visits to the slums and taking stock of the medical history of the children living there will enable the KMC health department to reach out to those children who may need immediate medical attention in the event of a third wave. “After consultations with eminent public health experts and paediatricians we may need to alert our team of doctors and health workers at the ward level to take stock of the health conditions of children in large slums located across the city. If we can prepare a list of vulnerable slums, we will keep our focus on them,” said a KMC health department official.
This apart, the KMC medical officers posted at the urban primary health centres will be asked to go through the medical history of the children who regularly visit these centres along with parents and based on the history of ailments prepare a list of those who are suffering from respiratory diseases and need special attention if the civic body needs to provide maximum protection to children during a third wave.
The civic body’s health department battling with the dreaded virus may also set up a pool of paediatricians among its medical officers and hire paediatricians if need be to build a task force to prevent a rapid spread of the virus among children.
The KMC health department has already decided to ramp up its infrastructure to accommodate children who may need to shift to a safe home or isolation centre.
