Pregnant women residing in rural areas that are at high risk of receiving floods were shifted to Primary Health Centres (PHC) or other government health facilities as their delivery date is just days away. Health officials said such precautionary measures have been taken in Adilabad, Mancherial, and other districts which are at risk of getting inundated due to heavy rain.
Health officials from the two districts said there have been no incidents of pregnant women getting stuck in inundated localities. “They were shifted out the first day it started to rain this week,” health officials in Mancherial said. In Adilabad, the women were shifted from the localities which usually get inundated during monsoons.
Since water keeps flowing in flooded localities, officials are expecting complaints of water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea. After a few weeks, when water becomes stagnant, chances of people contracting dengue, malaria, or other vector-borne diseases increase as virus-carrying mosquitoes breed in stagnant water.
Adilabad’s District Medical and Health Officer Narendra Rathod said that Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are already stocked with ORS packets, and medicines used to treat water borne diseases. “ANMs regularly speak with ASHAs to take stock of the situation. Medical Officers are also holding virtual meetings regularly,” Dr Rathod said.
The medicines required to attend the diseases are stocked at health facilities too.
