Malaria claims 80 lives in Meghalaya till May

Shillong, May 30 (UNI) Malaria has claimed 80 lives in Meghalaya till May so far this year, even as health authorities are still battling the mosquito-borne disease in remote areas of the state, official sources said.

''So far 80 people have died of Malaria during the first five months of this year alone,'' Director of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme Dr P L Joshi told UNI here last evening after the review meeting on the status of Malaria in the state.

However, unofficial reports said the death toll might be higher than the actual figure.

''We have alerted our health workers and they are working on a war footing with 'rapid diagnostic kits' for instant blood tests to detect malaria and educating the villagers on preventing the spread of this disease,'' Dr Joshi said.

He added that a 'micro-action plan' at every district headquarters had been initiated to check the spread of malaria.

''Drug Distribution Centres (DDCs) and Fever Treatment Depots (FTDs) have been established in the rural areas for providing easy access to anti-malarial drugs,'' the senior medical official informed.

Meanwhile, health authorities here said 'early monsoons' had led to the outbreak of the anopheles-borne disease.

''Another factor which has led to the increased death toll is that the villagers often bring the patients to hospitals very late when chances of survival are remote,'' Director of Health Service Dr H Lakiang said.

However, health workers alleged that Malaria had spread due to unavailability of anti-malarial medicines in almost all the health centres of the state.

Meanwhile, Union Additional Secretary in-charge of Health and Family Welfare Deepak Gupta told newspersons that the rise in the death toll was alarming. He added that the number of malaria cases in the North East and other states like Orissa, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh was rising.

''Concerted efforts will be made to have better monitoring system at the ground level to check malaria cases in the states,'' Mr Gupta assured.

UNI