Disease mapping to stem community transmission
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The all-out battle against Covid-19 will be further strengthened as the state health department will make use of the e-service ration card management system for its prevention and control activities. The details that will be made available through the system will be used by the department for preparing disease mapping.
The technical expertise of Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) and Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) will be used. As the possibility of community transmission of Covid-19 can’t be ruled out, such data and models will be helpful to deal with the situation.“Most of the areas are densely populated. Once community transmission occurs it could lead to a catastrophe. Thus population details of a specific area, especially the age-group wise data, is a must to chalk out a contingency plan. The ration card management system of the Civil Supplies Department will come in handy for this,” said an officer of the health department.
According to the officer, as the details of the majority of the ration card holders are available, it will help the department to gather information regarding the number of children, elderly and age-wise distribution in a locality.It is learnt that once a positive case gets reported from an area the disease map will help the department identify the number of people who belong to the age group of 60 and above and initiate preventive activities.
Pathanamthitta model
With massive spike in home isolation cases, the department is planning to expand the Pathanamthitta model of meeting non-medical needs of those in isolation through community participation across the state.
“For those in isolation meeting medical and non-medical needs is important. At Pathanamthitta, a team at the collectorate contacts those in isolation to know about their needs. While medical needs are met by primary health centre concerned, non-medical requirements could be met with the cooperation of society. A network consisting of panchayats, groceries, hotels and others has been established. It could be adopted as a statewide model,” said an officer.
What is disease mapping
“Disease mapping is a field of spatial epidemiology and it helps estimate the spatial pattern of disease. In the case of Covid-19, with the help of tools like geographic information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) a disease map will be prepared. The details of name and age mentioned in each ration card of a particular area will be incorporated in the map,” the officer said.