Andhra Pradesh - Khammam   

900 hamlets declared high risk zone for malaria in Khammam

- Photo: G. N. Rao

HEALTH ISSUES: A tribal woman from Dubba Tanda on her way to the district headquarters hospital in Khammam on Friday.

KHAMMAM: Some 900 habitations along the banks of Godavari and its tributary – Sabari have been identified in Khammam as high risk zone for malaria and 92 per cent of malarial cases detected in this pocket was of the Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous form of the disease and if left untreated could lead to fatal cerebral malaria.

A majority of these high risk habitations witnessed incidence of fever cases after the onset of monsoon. As part of the revised malaria control strategies, the Medical and Health Department had collected 37,973 blood smears in June last and first two weeks of July and 101 among these tested positive for malaria while 99 have been identified as cases of Plasmodium falciparum malaria.

The primary health centres in the agencies were put on alert following fever-related deaths reported in some of these habitations last week. Rapid fever survey was taken up. Some 25 lakh tablets of chloroquine and 7 lakh tablets of primaquine have been dispatched to the PHCs by the State government. The district has a reserve of some 4,000 emal injections meant for treating malaria.

In Lachigudem village of Kukunoor mandal, five cases of falciparum malaria were detected and attended immediately by the medical teams. The death of two persons in Manuguru area was attributed to cerebral malaria recently. Another person died in Mulkalplli village.

The Medical and Health Department personnel are yet to establish the cause of these deaths. The tribal habitations under the PHCs of Tulasdsipaka, Rekapalli and Jidiguppa were also in the grip of the epidemic.

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