The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Malaria cases on the rise

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Malaria cases on the rise

Staff Reporter

Stagnant water cited as one of the reasons

BANGALORE: The stagnant pools of water after the rains a few weeks ago have resulted in an increase in incidence of malaria around the city, say doctors.

A doctor at Victoria Hospital said he sees at least seven persons suffering from malaria every week. "The number of cases have definitely gone up over the past few weeks. However, they have all been weak forms of the disease that have been easy to treat," he said.

The first symptoms of malaria, most often, include fever, chill, sweat, headache, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. Since some of the symptoms are common to viral fever, doctors say that patients often wait a few days before coming to the hospital for treatment. "Often patients take a paracetamol when they get fever for a day or two. It is only when the fever does not subside do they come to the hospital for a check up," says the doctor.

Doctors said they are seeing a few cases of the more serious form of malaria — cerebral malariaThe doctors said most of the cases of cerebral malaria were from the districts. "Some of the patients come from the districts to the city for treatment," the doctor said.

Deputy Director Malaria (Bangalore Urban) Sharadha says that incidence of malaria goes up every year during May and June. "The seasonal rains always bring in some cases of malaria. The number of cases being reported for this time of the year is usual."

The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's Chief Health Officer Vijayalakshmi says that no cases of malaria had been reported by the BMP hospitals. "We are maintaining epidemiological data of all patients. No cases of malaria was reported last month," she said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail