169 people died of suspected Malaria in Meghalaya

Shillong, Dec 9 (UNI) About 169 people have died of suspected Malaria and other diseases in Meghalaya's Jaintia Hills and West Khasi Hills districts since August this year, state Health and Family Welfare Minister Elstone D Marak today said.

"Microscopically, we have confirmed 24 deaths in Jaintia Hills and 11 deaths in West Khasi Hills districts due to Malaria," Mr Marak told UNI here, adding that causes of another 134 deaths were yet to be ascertained.

Last month, the government had collected blood samples from state's Nonglait village in West Khasi Hills district after reports of 'rickettsial' disease. The blood samples were sent to National Institute of Communicable Diseases, New Delhi, for advanced pathological test. Rickettsial disease is caused when a louse or tick bite an infected person and then transmitted the blood to the other person.

Mr Marak said a team of medical experts including doctors from the state capital has also left to those affected villages- Bamkamar, Phlangkamar, Nartiang, Mukroh, Borato- to assist the district headquarters doctors.

He added that preventive measures have been taken like spraying of DTT and others to contain the spread of the communicable disease.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has also instructed its Regional Director Dr M Palit to rush to those affected areas with medical specialists and collected blood samples to ascertained the cause of the death. Dr Palit would later submit a report along with blood samples to the Centre for analysis.

Meanwhile, state Director in-charge Health and Family Welfare Dr H Lakiang ruled out the caused of deaths due to dengue and suspected other diseases that the other 134 deaths would also be due to Malaria. ''Now that we have conducted microscopic test on the spot we found that Malaria was the main disease which hit in Jaintia Hills areas,''Dr Lakiang said.

Dr Lakiang blamed the villagers for the spread of this communicable disease in the village. ''They don't even allow us to spray DDT due to its odd smell nor inform our doctors in the Primary Health Centres in time,'' the Director stated.

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