CHENNAI: "Any fever can be malaria. Get yourselves checked at the nearest Corporation dispensary free of cost."

This is the slogan with which the Chennai Corporation is approaching the chronic problem of malaria incidence in the city.

A round-the-year awareness and control drive, supported by the Union Government's National Malaria Eradication Programme, will now be the mode of operation against the disease. The Union Government has reportedly written to the media houses such as the Prasar Bharati to broadcast sensitising programmes on malaria eradication.

In its search for measures to bring down the incidence further, the civic body decided to attack the problem at its roots. Concerned over an increase in the number of cases this year, compared to the corresponding period last year, the civic body has trained its guns on the source — the household water storage facilities in the city. It is seeking amendments to the existing byelaws to enforce the provisions of the Public Health Act. The Act provides for fining households that leave their overhead tanks, wells and sumps open. This provided happy breeding ground for the malaria-carrying mosquito, Anopheles stephensi, the officials said.

In the field, the officials involved in anti-malaria programmes would pick blood smears from across the community in the acutely endemic areas. Those who test positive would be administered appropriate drugs.

Bringing the incidence down further would require radical measures, the officials said. The State Government could make the necessary changes in the laws to accommodate penal provisions so that the regulations could be enforced strictly.

Between January and May, the city recorded a little over 10,000 cases of malaria, according to official figures. If compared with the corresponding period in the past couple of years, the trend in the prevalence of the disease is on the rise. In 2002, about 7,500 cases were reported in the city.

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