Malaria spreads tentacles in state, 1,663 cases reported

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 23

Malaria, dengue and other vector-borne diseases have started spreading their tentacles in the state with 1,663 cases of malaria and 33 positive cases of dengue coming to the fore till Wednesday.

Nuh (earlier known as Mewat) district of the state is the worst affected — 1,039 cases of malaria have been reported.

Palwal comes next with 220 cases, followed by Faridabad (84), Yamunanagar (63), Hisar (48), Panchkula (41), Bhiwani and Jhajjar (31 each), Sirsa (22), Rohtak (20), Panipat (19), Gurugram (10), Rewari (nine), Jind (eight), Karnal (six), Mahendragarh (four), Kurukshetra (3), Kaithal and Fatehabad (two each) and Ambala (one case).

As far as the cases of malaria caused by plasmodium falciparum are concerned, 60 out of total 64 have been reported from Nuh district.

If Nuh district has the dubious distinction of having maximum number of malaria cases, Rohtak tops with 686 suspected cases of dengue out of total 1,150 in the state.

However, of these 1,150 suspected cases, only 33 cases have tested positive for dengue so far. Eight cases have tested positive in Rohtak district, while sizeable number of cases have been reported from other districts as well — Panchkula (140), Gurugram (87), Fatehabad (69) and Bhiwani (66).

Nuh Civil Surgeon Sant Lal Verma said he would soon take stock of the situation and initiate steps to check the menace.

Verma attributed the high number of cases to lack of sanitary conditions. He said there was an acute shortage of doctors and paramedics in the district. In Firozepur Zirka block, there was only one doctor to look after one community health centre and four primary health centres.

Health Minister Anil Vij, however, said there was nothing to worry as the incidents of malaria and other vector-borne diseases was almost half the number of cases reported last year.

Sharing figures of 2017, Vij said 2,447 cases of malaria had been reported by August 21 last year, of which 1,396 were in Nuh district alone.