SANNIDHANAM: Health department officials at Sabarimala (Sannidhanam) ruled out possibilities of an immediate outbreak of vector-borne diseases after lab tests results confirmed the same.Earlier, On Sunday night, officials collected blood samples from 588 workers here to check if anyone had malarial infection. Of this lot, 325 were from other states and 263 were from Kerala . Blood samples were collected from persons working at various hotels, annadanapuras and those among the cleaning staff.Nodal officer for the government hospital at Sannidhanam Dr G Suresh Babu said that there was more chance for the spread of malaria as lots of spots around Sannidhanam were conducive to the breeding of mosquitoes. Workers were subjected to blood tests because they had been here for weeks, unlike pilgrims who spend a maximum of 24 hours."The samples were tested at the government laboratory in Pathanamthitta and fortunately all of them came negative," he said, adding that the drill would be conducted again after two weeks.Since Monday, the vector control unit of the health department had also initiated a fogging drive at locations where presence of mosquito larvae was higher. "A potential breeding ground for mosquitoes is the pit where copra waste is dumped after extracting oil and hence special attention is given to that spot," said Babu.The department is maintaining an alert to prevent malaria and filariasis here. Special detection kits have been arranged by the department. Health officials are also keeping an eye to spot any leptospirosis or H1N1 (swine flu) cases. They are supplying preventive medicines among pilgrims and workers here.

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