CHENNAI: Health minister Ma Subramanian distributed laptops to District Maternal Health Officers and District Health Nurses at the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine on Wednesday.

He also released a Gestational Diabetes activity guide for the nurses.

A total of 1,807 rural health center nurses and 42 district welfare officers will be given one laptop each, at a cost of Rs 15.92 crore.

Inaugurating this project, health minister gave laptops to 198 district health nurses and district maternal health officers of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, and Chengalpattu. The laptops will be used to monitor and keep a record of the health of expectant mothers during pregnancy and newborn babies post delivery.

Additionally, a book containing new guidelines on gestational diabetes with medical professionals such as diabetes specialists has been published.

This book deals with complications of pregnancy especially for pregnant women with diabetes. The minister said that there are 9.25 lakh pregnant mothers registered in Tamil Nadu every year, which includes 70,000 to 1,00,000 women who suffer from diabetes.

Talking about the viral flu spreading in China, he said that the viral fever is said to affect children more commonly. "The World Health Organization has already issued a warning in this regard. The state health department is also monitoring the children who have fever but there are no new cases of this virus in Tamil Nadu so far. However, various cases of influenza, dengue, and malaria are being reported in the State."

He said 10,576 special camps have been organised, of which 5,21,853 people have been benefitted. A total of 1,791 people have been diagnosed with flu and 917 have cold and flu both. All measures are being taken to prevent mosquito breeding to prevent these diseases.