'Kerala's achievements in health sector model for country'

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today hailed Kerala's achievements in the health sector as a "model for the country" and said the state was maintaining quality from Primary Health Centres to the medical college level.
"The achievements of Kerala in the health sector is a model for the country. The state has been maintaining quality right from the primary health sector to the medical college sector," he said.
The minister was speaking after inaugurating the 13th Annual Conference of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India (AOI), Kerala branch, here.
On the menace of noise pollution, he said the ministry would soon come out with a comprehensive law against the menace.

He lauded AOI's Kerala chapter for being in the forefront of the National Initiative for Safe Sound (NISS) project and added that the high level of awareness among people in the state about this was due in most part to the campaign undertaken over the several years by AOI.
Kerala health minister V S Sivakumar said Kerala was aiming for comprehensive health protection by including modern scientific technologies in the medical treatment.

Later speaking at a function at Thrissur, Harsh Vardhan stressed the need to make a humongous national movement to prevent suicides', murder, alcohol and drugs' and promote organs donation.

He was speaking at 'Ma Nishada' campaign with the message of 'No suicide, no murder, no alcohol and no drugs', led by Chairman of Thrissur-based Kidney Federation of India, Fr Davis Chirramal.
The campaign journey will start from September 25 from Kasargode and end on November 1 at Thiruvananthapuram.
Vardhan said social evils in society could not be eliminated merely by enacting legislation but there should be people with social commitment to take such causes.
He said it was quite alarming that India occupied the top spot globally in suicide of youths' in the 15 to 35 age group, though the country was in the sixth spot in the case of suicides in general.

He said it was most unfortunate that 75,455 persons committed suicide in Kerala in a decade between 2003 and 2013.
Vardhan noted that the priest's journey to promote kidney donation in 2009 and organ donation in 2012 had become a great success not only in Kerala, but at the national level as many came forward to donate organs after brain death, which was not earlier the case.