MEDICAL TOURISM UNIQUE KERALA
KERALA’S BATTLES ON THE HEALTH FRONT Our Correspondent
T
he Kerala Model in Health is known the world over for the high life expectancy rate of its population, highly improved access to healthcare, and low infant mortality and birth rates. Nearly 10,000 government and private medical institutions crisscross the state to form the backbone of its health infrastructure. An evenly distributed primary health centres and their sub-centres cater mainly to the rural population. The National Health Mission has found that the first twelve best primary health centres of India are in Kerala, while three of them have got the National Quality Assurance Standard (NQAS) Certification. Adding another golden feather in its cap, Kerala has topped Niti Ayog’s health index for the fourth year in a row this year, in recognition of its superior health system in both public and private sectors. Kerala achieved this scale of progress as compared to other states in India with consistent efforts by various sections of society, backed by the succeeding state governments irrespective of political colour. The Kerala model is marked by a rare combination of Marxist and Missionary work in parallel streams. No wonder then that the state has been able to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and other threatening epidemics like Nipah, Zika, and Black Fungus in recent times. The state also successfully prevented any major outbreak of H1N1, Dengue, Hepatitis, Chikungunya in recent monsoons, further consolidating its position on the health front. Local bodies, too, have played a key role in making the state a place to live comfortably and lead a healthy life, and for tourists to visit fearlessly and bask in its natural beauty. Kerala stopping Nipah in its tracks in 2018 and 2019 were stories that attracted worldwide attention. The virus claimed 17 lives in the first phase in 2018, but was quickly restricted to Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. Kerala reined in the dreaded virus later in 2019 after an outbreak in Ernakulam district with no further casualties. This was at a time when 150 children had died of encephalitis in Bihar state. Nipah had claimed over a hundred lives when it reared its head for the first time in the Malaysian village of Sungai Nipah (hence the name) in 1998. Nipah has no known cure or vaccine. It
34 Medical Tourism Apr - Jun 2022
