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Cerebral malaria claims 15 lives in remote villages of Sunamganj

From Iqbal Siddiquee
SYLHET. Jan 28: Cerebral malaria, that broke out in different areas of Sunamganj district has already caused death of about 30 people since December 1996. The affected villages are in Tahirpur. Biswamb-harpur and Doarabazar thanas. At east three thousand others are still suffering from the diseases various, unofficial sources claimed.
The disease has spread creating panic among the people of affected areas. When contacted, district health office sources said. 15 deaths had been re-Krted from the villages of
hirpur thana. With a view to bringing the situation under control seven medical teams had been formed while a temporary camp has already been started.
While talking to this correspondent. a physician working in the area said, when a rnngapitn named., Maculetus^ veryliare type bites someone.' thi^^Mtient becomes unconscious and the brain haemorrhage causes his death within 24 to 72 hours. He further said,
the germ carried by Maculetus mosquito is termed as 'Falciparum1.
The affected areas being very remote and having no road communication with the thana headquarters or the district headquarters, the people suffer a lot. Footpath or boat is the only means of communication of the vast locality, due to which the employees of the health department show little interest to stay in the remote health centres.
Tile disease is now spreading to the adjacent villages of Biswambharpur and Doarabazar thanas, official sources confirmed.
It is stable here that, the deadly disease took lives of several thousand people in the last three consecutive year from 1995 in the vast areas of Tahirpur. Doarabazar. Sunamganj Sadar. Biswambharpur ,and Dharampasha thanas. The Health Department had to initiate special measures to bring the situation under control. Several teams from the World Health Organisation (WHO) also
visited the affected areas and suggested immediate measures andprovided necessary help.
The authorities then engaged nine medical teams and started a temporary camp. The authorities also distributed several thousand insecticide-mixed mosquito nets in the affected areas in 22 villages. Besides. Malathion was also sprayed in the affected villages.
A number of health officials say. the effectiveness of sprayed Malathion had already been exhausted. There should be an immediate* arrangement for spraying Malathion in the vast affected areas, they viewed.
The affected areas are located at the bottom of the hilly areas in the Indian state of Meghalaya, the people, almost all of whom are very poor earn their livelihood by selling wood collected from the hilly areas. They sometimes carry the germ qf mosquitoesuwmre.health, of- ii ficials said.
Once the outbreak of the disease is being reported from the bordering areas aS well as from even inside.
The badly affected villages in the Tahirpur thana are. Ra-jaigram. Koraigaara. Sharam. Lakma. Sukdev and Laurergarh villages. The CARITAS, an NGO has started 3 treatment centres at Kalagaon. Chanpur and Laurergarh. But. there is not a single doctor in any of these cen-
Besides, a number of posts of medical officers and other staff had been lying vacant in Tahirpur. Biswambharpur and Doarabazar thanas, causing much for the treatment of this killer disease besides the normal health service in the concerned area.
In the previous years, the outbreak of cerebral malaria was reported during the monsoon seasons only. But. this time, the disease has broken out in the winter. It has triggered much panic among the poverty-stricken people living in remote .villages!..
Immediate steps should be taken for spraying Malathion and sufficient number of medical teams should be sent to the affected areas, it is widely felt.