Date:02/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/02/stories/2003040201680300.htm

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Malaria resurfaces in Valiathura ward

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM APRIL 1. After a nearly four-year lull, six indigenous cases of malaria have been reported from the coastal ward of Valiathura, once notoriously endemic to the dreaded disease.

According to health officials, while one case was reported in November last year, there have been five fresh cases of indigenous malaria reported from Valiathura in the months leading up to March this year.

While the comforting sign is that all the cases have been diagnosed as Plasmodium vivax, a relatively harmless form of malaria compared to the lethal Plasmodium Falciparum type, there is concern over the resurfacing of indigenous cases in the coastal ward which has not reported a single indigenous case in the past four years.

Health officials in collaboration with the Corporation staff and volunteers of the Thiruvananthapuram Social Service Society are engaged in a gamut of operations, which include `source reduction' techniques of depriving breeding sites for the vectors, netting of nearly 500 open wells, fogging and residual residential spraying.

The health administration has deputed T. Dileep Kumar, senior biologist, to supervise malaria control programmes in the area and to conduct entomological studies.

Facility for in-patient treatment of malaria would be revived at the Valiathura hospital from April 1.

Adequate stocks of anti-malarial medicines are also available at the institution.

Health officials have held discussions with the local parish and people's representatives on prevention strategies and measures of caution to be undertaken to pre-empt an epidemic such as the one that broke out in 1994-'96.

According to the District Medical Officer, K. Shailaja, the density of vector population in the coastal ward and the neighbouring ward of Vallakkadavu is at least two times above the normal range.

She pointed out that a malaria patient, even if treated with chloroquine or primaquine, would have carrier status with the residual organism embedded in organs, mainly the liver. The programme to subject people in transit with a prophylactic medication had not been entirely successful, she added.

According to the DMO, malarial infection is usually of an `imported' nature, with migrant labourers returning from Mangalore in Karnataka or from other States, or pilgrims returning from the Velankanni festival, bringing in the infection.

Smear tests were being conducted to diagnose malaria in the population.

Of the over 500 cases subject to serum examination, only one person had tested positive for malarial infection, she said.

The DMO has urged fishermen returning from Mangalore to ensure that they do not carry malarial infection. Patients with fever have been asked to seek treatment to rule out malarial infection.