Gambusia fish to combat malaria in Mayurbhanj

Baripada,Jul 29 (UNI) A fish called 'Gambusia Aftinis', that eats the female larvae of the mosquito carrying malarial parasite, is being propagated in all the 26 blocks of Mayurbhanj.

According to District Malaria Officer (DMO) Kailash Chandra Mohanty altogether 2987 water bodies in the peripheral areas in Mayurbhanj district have been charged with Gambusia fish spawns.

With the monsoon rains lashing the district, cerebral malaria has staged a comeback to haunt the people of Mayurbhanj with tribals often falling prey to this killer disease.

Sources said since 1977-78, the Simlipal Tiger Reserve(STR) and its fringe areas had been identified as 'High Risk Zone' as far as cerebral malaria or the 'plasmodium falciparum' is concerned.

Despite multi-pronged strategies, including intensified preventive and curative measures, the situation continued to be grim this year too.

STR Field Director Debabrata Swain said nearly 80 per cent field staff of the reserve were down with malarial shivers this year too.

Three Range Officers stationed in the ''Core Area'' of the Reserve - Kiran Kanta Sahu (Nawana North), Aswini Mohanty (Nawana South) and Prabhat Kumar Mallick (Jenabil) had been hospitalised, he added.

Besides Simlipal and its fringes, other areas in the district that reflected high incidence of 'plasmodium falciparum' positive cases included Jashipur, Badampahar,Manada and Tato, district office sources said.

Official sources said during 2006, 17906 malaria positive cases were detected. Of this, an alarming number of 16,484 cerebral malaria or plasmodium falciparum cases were detected.

During the year under review, eight deaths from cerebral malaria were reported in the district. ''We have yet a trek a long way to achieve our goal of 'nil' deaths from this killer disease,'' Mr Mohanty said.

UNI