Tripura: Epidemics claim 18 lives in 2 weeks

Agartala, July 15: Malaria and other summer epidemics have claimed 18 lives in Tripura in the past two weeks, prompting the state government to issue a high alert to its administration.

State Health Minister Tapan Chakraborty today said here that the situation was being monitored daily with every hospital in the state being supplied with malarial drugs, kits for blood tests.

With the increasing incidences of Malaria and death due to other seasonal diseases, the state government had announced reimbursement of the cost of bringing patients from their homes to hospitals, civil society and individuals.

This had been done particularly for the poor who found it difficult to ferry patients to hospitals because of the costs involved, the minister said adding that the medical camps were being organised in remote and inaccessible areas for the past one month, while medical and paramedical teams as well as medical consignments were sent by helicopter.

According to state health department the entire South Tripura district and some portions of North and Dhalai district had already been identified as 'malaria drug-resistant areas' where second generation drugs, sent as the normal drugs, were not being effective.

Earlier, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had carried out a study on Plasmodium Falciparum(PF) virus and mosquito genetics in Tripura and a six-member expert team led by Dr Anil Prakash Deputy Director of Northeastern Regional Medical Research Centre of ICMR collected samples as well as completed preliminary investigations.

Alarmed by the increasing incidences of Malaria deaths in Tripura National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme(NVBDC) had also conducted a comprehensive study on effectiveness of conventional medicines for malaria treatment in 2005.

The NVBDC had assessed the effectiveness of first generation malaria drugs following the catagoraisation of Central Drug Research Institute that the state as Chloroquine(Malaria drug) resistant some two years back and suggested to prescribe Salpha Pyramethamine Combination, second-generation anti-malaria drugs.

The Plasmodium Falciparum (PF) component present in Malaria had affected patients in the state and Chloroquine has already become inactive for long-sufferers. New chemoprophylaxis drugs have been suggested as an immediate measure, sources said.

State health department's study established that Tripura climate is conducive for malarial vectors like Anopheles Minimus, Anopheles Fluviatilis and Anopheles virus, and a predominant and malignant malaria parasite Plasmodium Falciparum.

According to health experts, resistance of the people in the state had grown but outsiders were affected severely and they then become malaria-virus carriers, which gradually spreads the disease even to other parts of the country.

Another BSF record shows that in 2005 altogether 1627 PF Malaria cases were detected, while 1307 cases were detected in 2006 and 188 till May 2007. PF Malaria accounts for 80 per cent of all human malarial infections and 90 per cent deaths for which more than 120 million clinical cases and over one million deaths occur in the world each year.

UNI