45 malaria deaths in SCB every month

Post News Network

Cuttack, Jan 27: The state government’s efforts to contain malaria deaths have yielded little results with the SCB Medical College and Hospital registering over 45 deaths every month.
The state’s premier hospital was witnessed as many as 588 malaria deaths between August 2012 and August 2013. In 2013-14, the number of persons who died of malaria is around 500. The exact figure of malaria deaths will be published in March this year, said officials at SCB record section.
Residents attribute the rise in malaria cases to poor sanitation and lack of awareness programmes. On the other hand, the health department claimed to have chalked out several strategies to contain malaria deaths.
Most of the deaths in SCB hospital are attributed to algid and cerebral malaria. However, Cuttack has registered one such death in the past three years, said chief district medical officer Prafulla Kumar Behera.
Though Athagarh, Badamba, Narasinghpur and Tigiria are malaria-prone areas, no malaria cases have been reported from these areas in last few years, Behera maintained.
Patients suffering from fever for more than two days are being provided quinine and chloroquine tablets. Patients are being advised to test blood. In some cases, blood tests also fail to detect the disease. By the time the disease is detected, it becomes too late to save patients, said medicine specialist Bhubanananda Moharana.
Medicine department professor CBK Mohanty said the hospital authorities have succeeded to curb malaria menace.
Going by Orissa State Malaria Information System, the number of patients who are down with malaria is 2, 62, 582 across the country in 2013 of which 89, 446 patients were from the state. Seventy per cent of patients afflicted with the disease are mostly from Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Bolangir and Koraput districts. Number of malaria deaths is too less compared to number of malaria patients admitted to the hospital for treatment, Mohanty said.