Medical officials swing into action after Malaria reports in Kottakkal

MALAPPURAM: District medical authorities have swung into action on Wednesday after a suspected Malaria case was reported in Kottakkal municipality. Health officals are camping in the area and they are making efforts to curb the spread of disease to more parts of the region.
The disease was reported in a 30-year-old man, who is planning to go abroad in the coming days. District medical officer Dr K Sakkeena said that elaborate mass screening drive would be conducted in the region apart from the ongoing drive to prevent mosquito breeding."As there are chances of spread of disease to other persons in neighboring area, alert have been issued against the disease," she said.
Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria, is spread by the sting of female specie of anopheles mosquito. Anopheles mosquitoes breed in stagnant freshwater.
Recently a youth died in Nilambur, due to Malaria and his relatives had alleged that failure in early detection led to the death of the person. Following this, the district health administration had decided to launch awareness programme for the medical officials for early detection of Malaria.
The person who died in Nilambur had visited many neighbouring states Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhrapradesh, which are vulnerable to Malaria. At the same time, the person in Kottakkal who affected disease did not travel to any other states recently.
It is suspected that migrant workers from Malaria-endemic states could be harbouring the parasite and water logging at construction sites could be providing breeding space for mosquitoes.
As part of the efforts to prevent the spread of Malaria through migrant labourers, the district medical administration had decided to put the migrant labourers camps under surveillance. In 2014, there was a move from the part of health authorities to introduce health identity cards for them migrant labourers. The programme was successfully implemented among the migrant labourers in Edappal region and the district medical authorities had decided to extend the programme to district. But, the card distribution was stopped later.