5,000 malaria cases reported in DK this year, says DHO

Action plan towards control of malaria to be ready by this month

 The Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) will come up with an action plan by this month to create awareness on malaria and for the control of malaria. A series of meetings have been held in this regard.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Mangalore City Corporation in-charge Commissioner Gokuldas Nayak said that this time, along with officials of the MCC and health department, the medical colleges, colleges of social work, corporate offices and also builders will involve themselves in creating awareness on malaria. The implementing, monitoring and supervising authority will be the part of the action plan. 

A core committee will be formed with Mangalore City Corporation Mayor as its president. NGO representatives, builders, contractors, representatives of social work institutions, health department staff and the community medicine department staff of medical colleges, will be included in the committee. 

Under the action plan, teams will be formed in zonal levels to include members from these, who will carry out awareness activities. A zone will comprise of 5-6 wards. Software will be developed towards the reporting system so as to collect data from sites, including the photos of the mosquito breeding places. 

Nayak said that the implementation of the action plan will be given utmost importance since there is more possibility of malaria cases during the receding of rains as water would remain stagnant during the period.

As a part of measures towards the control of malaria, information has been disseminated to the builders towards source reduction at the construction sites and the penalty has also been increased for violators, the commissioner in-charge said.

  Meanwhile, MCC official said that measures have been already being taken towards the prevention of malaria in corporation limits. Regular surveys and site visits are being done, sample from the infected people are collected and further treatment is being provided to them in city health centres after laboratory investigations. Mosquito larvae are being destroyed.

Two teams have been deployed to carry out biological control through the release of guppy fishes into the sources of water, he said. 

As per the official information, 4,000 confirmed cases of malaria have been reported in the city corporation limits during the period between January and July. In July alone, there have been 1,500 reported cases. 

District Health Officer Dr H S Shivkumar said that there have been around 5,000 reported cases of malaria in the district, from January to July this year and a marginal increase of 2 to 3 per cent is found as against last year in the same duration. 

The industrial sites, migrant families and construction sites contribute in large extent to the spread of malaria, he said and added that there have been two deaths due to malaria so far this year.