Sindh Minister for Health, Dr Sagheer Ahmed has directed all Executive District Officers (EDOs), Health in Sindh for establishing control rooms to register and monitor the cases of diarrhoea/gastro-enteritis, on regular basis.
Directing all the EDOs Health, the Minister Health ordered them to ensure stock of necessary life saving medicines at their respective health outlets and places of emergencies and ensure utilisation of the same effectively, said a statement issued here Sunday.
Dr Sagheer also asked them to approach local authorities for the provision of clean potable water to their inhabitants. Health Education units should also be activated and people be asked to use boiled water, avoid over ripe and unripe fruits and ensure disposal of animal dung garbage and other refuse by burning or dumping to avoid fly breeding, he added.
Dr Sagheer Ahmed has directed the EDOs to establish first aid camps and constitute mobile teams equipped with requisite health manpower, drugs and medicines. EDOs should also mobilise their Deputy District Officer (Preventive) and other field staff for effective supervision, he further directed.
It may be recalled that on the directives of the Minister Health a central control Room for Diarrhoea/ Gastro-enteritis has already been established in the office of Director General Health with telephone number 022-9240106 and 022-9240101 fax number 022-9240100. All EDOs have been directed to report Diarrhoea/Gastro Cases to the Central Control Room on Daily basis.
It is also pertinent to mention here that on the directives of Minister Health the department has provided, 2,79,500 packets of ORS in 12 affected districts of the province. As many as 16912 patients of Diarrhea were treated in various hospitals while 4643 were admitted from May 01 to May 16, 2009. One death was also reported in Mirpurkhas due to Diarrhea during this period.