KOCHI: Monitoring epidemic outbreak in the district had hit a hurdle with several private hospitals failing to report the epidemic outbreak to the health department. With over a hundred hospitals registered in the district, including multi-speciality hospitals, very few were reporting epidemic outbreaks to the health department. A report accessed by Express from the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), states that only 20 hospitals were reporting communicable diseases outbreak to the cell.
IDSP is a surveillance unit at the Ernakulam General hospital that monitors communicable disease outbreak. Though some major hospitals have provided the data, the clinics and the hospitals functioning in the rural area of the district were yet to report.
“When jaundice and hepatitis-A were reported at Nellukkuzhi in Kothamangalam, it took a few days for health department officials to be in the know. Had that been reported on time, early intervention could have controlled the spread. Even after that, several hospitals and clinics are not reporting epidemic to the health department,” said a health official seeking anonymity.
Even Kochi Corporation had come down heavily against private hospitals for not sharing the epidemic data with the DMO. Even after the Mayor issued a directive, only a few hospitals in the district sent the report. Dr Sreedevi, Additional DMO, however, says there is a change for the better. “Now the trend has changed. Several hospitals in the district have started informing the epidemic outbreak. Even we started taking awareness class to the people associated with this. Also, we have taken steps to improve the present mechanism,” she said.