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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Malaria outbreak in Chhattisgarh by Aman Sethi

Malaria outbreak in Chhattisgarh by Aman Sethi

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published Published on Nov 16, 2010   modified Modified on Nov 16, 2010

Epidemic declared in Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur districts; 10 dead in Bilaspur

State health officials have confirmed the outbreak of a malaria epidemic in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur districts. While the neighbouring districts of Durg and Koriya have also reported a spurt in malaria cases, officials have embarked on a State-wide intervention programme to contain the disease.

Health Secretary Vikas Sheel said 10 people had died of falciparum malaria in Bilaspur thus far, and the administration was conducting door-to-door surveys in affected regions. Health workers are also distributing insecticide-embedded mosquito nets and spraying village homes with pesticides like DDT.

“We have tested nearly 5,000 fever patients over the last month and a half, of which between 30 and 40 per cent tested positive for falciparum malaria,” said Amar Singh Thakur, Bilaspur's chief medical officer, indicating that between 1,500 and 2,000 patients have been infected in Bilaspur district alone. Surveys are still underway in Rajnandgaon but preliminary reports suggest that about 20 villages have been affected and over 100 patients tested positive for falciparum malaria.

Malaria is endemic to several of Chhattisgarh's 18 districts, and the State has among the highest malaria incidence rates in the country. In India, the malaria parasite has two strains — the relatively mild plasmodium vivax, and the virulent plasmodium falciparum which is responsible for almost all malaria-related deaths.

Medicine shortage

Chhattisgarh's response to the epidemic could be hampered by a shortage of medicines.

“We have already used up about 80 per cent of our supplies of ACT [Artesunate Combination Therapy] medicines,” said Mr. Sheel, adding that the State had requested the Centre to send more supplies and would consider buying ACT medicines in the open market.

According to the National Drug Policy on Malaria 2010, all falciparum malaria cases must be treated with ACT.

Doctors said that the short two-year shelf life of ACT (as opposed to the five-year shelf life of traditional chloroquine-based treatment) could have contributed to the shortage of medicines.

Inconsistencies

Health officials are also struggling to comprehend the scale of the crisis. On October 31, The Hindu reported that inconsistencies in malaria statistics were affecting the State's anti-malaria programme.

“The lack of surveillance could be a key factor in the escalation of the epidemic,” said Yogesh Jain of the Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), a community health project in Bilaspur.

More than 40 patients were admitted to the JSS hospital with severe malaria, and seven of them died. The JSS has recorded 234 cases in the first fortnight of November.

Speaking off the record, sources said that years of under-reporting malaria statistics may put pressure on the administration to underplay the current crisis as well. For instance, government figures claim that only 137 people have died of malaria in Chhattisgarh since the creation of the State in 2000 — a figure that has been widely criticised as unrealistically low.

Mr. Sheel said that this time the administration was encouraging field workers to report their finds as accurately and transparently as possible. “We need to recognise reality before we deal with it,” he said.


The Hindu, 17 November, 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/17/stories/2010111760810700.htm


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