Plane relief from Malaria

Aizawl, Sep 26 (UNI) BSF personnel, along the Indo-Bangla border, locked in a grim battle for a longtime can now heave a sigh of relief as an airplane can instantly take the affected to the an infirmary.

Here the enemy is not from across the border and the battle is not against men in another uniform. Its against malaria that wreaks havoc among soldiers guarding the border on the unfriendly terrain.

The reason is all too evident because more than 4,000 BSF jawans, posted near the Bangladesh border area of Lunglei, Tuirial, Demagiri, Tlabung Madpara of the western belt of the state were tested positive of Malaria within a span of an year.

The terrian also made it difficult to get any medical help in cases in which someone seriously fell sick and the only option was to airlift the victim, with the help of airforce or any other private airlines, which was costing lakhs together for BSF officials.

More than 100 jawans have already lost their lives due to malaria within a span of three years.

However, now for the first time, the BSF Air Wing has started its flight operations to Mizoram, especially for the jawans, who could be airlifted to various hospitals in Kolkata and Guwahati on the medical grounds for immediate attention within a span of few hours, which earlier took four days.

The AVRO plane of the Border Security Force, has a capacity to carry 11 persons, and will operate fortnightly from tomorrow and also on demand by the DIG office here in the capital.

Going with the official statistics given by the BSF here in Mizoram, out of the total 4224 detected malaria cases, 2,055 were tested positive with Plafmodium Falfiparum (PF) malaria, 26 were affected of Plafmodium Vivax (PV) malaria and rest 2143 were detected as ordinary malaria.

According to additional health director Dr Baruah, both PV and PF malarial cases are more dangerous than ordinary malarial virus because these virus immediately affect the brain directly and the chances of survival would be bleak if proper medicines were not administered at the right time.

BSF officials also stated that they have already spent more than 20 lakhs within this year for the jawans, who were affected by Malaria.

The officials added that despite their war footing anti-malarial measures such as continous DDT spraying on these mosquitoe prone areas and providing tablets, mosquito nets, lotions, mosquito repellant coils to their jawans were not of much use as the humid climate made the men prone to mosquito bites.

UNI SNR BA SP RN1138