Malda: 3 malaria detection kiosks to be set up at transit points

Malda: The Health department of Malda has detected that 90 per cent of severe malaria cases caused by Plasmodium falciparum being reported in the district are of people from out of the Malda district.

They have decided to set up detection kiosks at 3 major transit points of the district.

Sudipta Bhaduri, CMOH Malda, said: “There are around 250 cases of malaria at present, but the concern is that 90 per cent of the Falciparum Malaria affected are coming from other places. We have decided to set up 3 kiosks, one at Malda Town Station, Uttarkanya bus stand and Mahadipur International Land Port to screen anyone coming from outside. Along with this, 354 dengue cases have been detected.”Anticipating a likely surge of vector-borne diseases in the months of August, September and October, the Malda district administration is going all out to harness the spread of dengue and malaria in the district. An awareness campaign was organised throughout the district on Thursday.

A rally with school children was taken out in the English Bazar Municipality area.

All the concerned people of the blocks; Gram Panchayat (GP) and areas where these vector-borne diseases are tracked to be increasing were called to the meeting at the Collectorate Building. Among the 4 blocks of Malda, English Bazar block has the most number of cases.

The hotspots are Sujapur GP in Kaliachak I Block, Binodpur and Jadupur I GPs in English Bazar with some other GPs in Kaliachak II and III blocks. Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate Malda, said: “The Panchayats and wards of municipalities with growing case numbers have only been called in the meeting to bridge the gap to control the diseases.

We have already started proper cleaning drives, increased the number of sweepers, applied larvicides, started weekly review and monthly cleaning calendar.”