141 malaria cases reported in district,8 in city this year

As many AS 141 cases of malaria have been reported in Pune district since January,of which eight are from the city.

As many AS 141 cases of malaria have been reported in Pune district since January,of which eight are from the city. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has activated its insect control cell and identified 25,854 mosquito breeding spots across the city. Dr R R Pardeshi,chief medical officer of the PMC said the civic body has released a total of 2,552 guppy fishes in 208 spots to curb breeding of mosquitoes. These fish eat the larvae of mosquitoes and help tackle malaria.

Pre-monsoon preparedness to contain vector-borne diseases like malaria,dengue and chikungunya has been put in place,said Pardeshi,adding that data has been collected from over 200 private hospitals in the city and blood samples of suspected patients have been sent to the laboratory at Gadi Khana for examination.

A fortnightly house-to-house surveillance is also underway. While around 137 cases of malaria were reported in the city last year,only eight cases have been reported so far this year,said Pardeshi. We have identified 17,248 permanent breeding sites,mainly at construction sites,swimming pools and river embankments,¿ he said.

There were 200 deaths owing to malaria in 2010 in the state last year,out of which 145 deaths occurred in Mumbai. Around 18 deaths due to malaria were reported in Mumbai till April this year. A total of 28,400 cases have been registered since January this year in the state,of which 16,833 were from Mumbai and 141 from Pune district.

According to Dr V M Khanande,state joint director for health,awareness programmes against malaria and other vector borne diseases are being organised across the state in June. There has been a marginal rise in malaria cases in districts like Gadchiroli,Chandrapur and Nashik. Khanande said a world bank project is likely to finance control strategies at four districts.

Meanwhile,the health authorities said no dengue cases have been reported in the city so far. Last year,110 cases of dengue and 112 cases of chikungunya were reported,said Pardeshi. The insect control department has already started indoor residual spraying to contain malaria.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories