KOCHI: The first communication from the health department on prevention of leptospirosis (rate fever) and other communicable diseases after floods came only on August 21, according to government doctors.
“Once we got a whiff of the situation, doctors started working actively. Mostly fake medicines/prophylaxis and wrong messages were the major causes for the increased incidence.
The doctors had been working actively on field since the first day of flood. Many of our doctors themselves were victims of the flood. But still they worked actively across the state,” said Dr V Jithesh, General Secretary, Kerala Government Medical Officers Association.
“People fall for the wrong messages and take alternate prophylaxis, which gives them a sense of security. However, they have also been affected by leptospirosis. Doxycycline, the prescribed prophylaxis, is approved by the WHO for leptospirosis. Even after that, people fall for wrong propaganda,” he added.
He was responding to the Express’story on the lapses by the doctors in giving prophylaxis and alleged ‘failure in following treatment protocol in the beginning’.
Health Secretary Rajeev Sadandan had the other day said that when the leptospirosis cases erupted, there was treatment lapse from the part of doctors, which led to the increased number of deaths. He also said that once the issue was rectified the number of deaths came down.