Now malaria, a notifiable disease

Now malaria, a notifiable disease
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Highlights

As part of the fight against malaria, and following the request from the Union government, the state government has declared the major public health problem, Malaria, as a notifiable disease by issuing the GO MS No 36 and published a gazette notification, announced district medical and health officer Dr S Rajyalakshmi.

Ongole: As part of the fight against malaria, and following the request from the Union government, the state government has declared the major public health problem, Malaria, as a notifiable disease by issuing the GO MS No 36 and published a gazette notification, announced district medical and health officer Dr S Rajyalakshmi.

As the world observes the Malaria Day on Wednesday, she explained that though the malaria incidence is decreasing year after year, they has a target to work hard to make India malaria-free by 2027 and eliminate malaria from the country by 2030.

As Malaria a notifiable disease now, the private clinics, hospitals, labs and other medical practitioners should intimate the district medical and health department immediately after they find a patient positive for malaria.

They should record the details of the patient, his place, possibility of where he was bitten by the mosquito transporting malaria. After reporting, the government authorities will conduct medical camps, take blood samples and take action to eliminate mosquitoes in the area and also provide treatment to the suspected cases to stop the disease develop into epidemic.

Rajyalakshmi said that the areas of Chintala, Korreprolu, Venkatadripalem, Palutla, KS Palli in the Nallamala forest and Chimakurthy mining area are considered as epidemic malaria.

These areas contain six per cent of population but contribute 90 per cent of the district malaria incidence, in monsoon from June to November. She said that with the continuous surveillance, the number of malaria cases were reduced from 1,830 in 2011 to 466 in 2015, 305 in 2016, 262 in 2017 and 70 by April 22, 2018 and she is hopeful that the number further decreases in future.

With the theme for the Malaria Day on Wednesday, ‘Ready to Beat Malaria’, the DMHO said that they involved all the departments like panchayat raj, RWS, ICDS, tribal welfare, forest, social welfare, agriculture, fisheries etc to participate in the programmes to create awareness on malaria.

She said that the departments concerned will take up activities like spraying abate, provide bed nets, release gumbusia fishes into water stagnation pits, identify high incidence of malaria areas and intensify active and passive surveillance.

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