BMC pulled up for rise in malaria cases

After five persons died of malaria this month,corporators pulled up the Brihhanmumbai Municipal Corporation for lack of action to prevent the rise in malaria cases.

The data provided by the administration on the number of slides tested and those who have tested positive is incorrect. There needs to be a comprehensive health policy for the citizens, said Rajhans Singh,Congress corporator. Corporators alleged that the civic body is deflating figures of patients admitted and tested positive for malaria. According to Congress corporator Sameer Desai,The BMC has partial data as most of the private practitioners,including small and big nursing homes and hospitals,do not give data on the number of patients. If we take into account those figures also,the real picture will be worse.

Even as corporators maintained there was no improvement in malaria control,civic officials claimed the slide positivity rate (SPR) of malaria has dipped this year.

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The SPR was 5.89 per cent in June last year,but this year until June 17,it has dipped to 1.7 per cent. We are aware the cases will increase in July when the monsoon intensifies and therefore we will continue our malaria control drive. Mosquito proofing measures are also in place and those who do not comply with the norms are penalised, said Manisha Mhaiskar,additional municipal commissioner.

Most of the senior officials usually sit and conduct meetings and conferences on malaria control without much field work. There needs to be more action and less discussions. Though the officials claim they are penalising defaulters,they cannot get away by paying fines, said Yogesh Sagar,BJP corporator.

According to data provided by BMC,last year,99,555 people were tested for malaria of which 5,866 tested positive,while this year until June 25,85,306 were tested and 3,185 were found positive.

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Sameer Desai