Rayagada: Malaria has assumed alarming proportions in Rayagada district as over 40 children from various blocks in the district have been identified as malaria-positive in the last six days. The affected children have been undergoing treatment at the Rayagada headquarters hospital. The district is seeing no let-up in the spread of the disease. Reports said that as many as 4,844 persons in the district have been afflicted with malaria and undergone treatment between January and July. Among them, 533 are children below five years of age. According to details available from the district headquarters hospital, this year malaria tests were conducted on 3,23,318 persons between January and July.
Things have come to such a pass that malaria patients from different blocks in the district are getting admitted to the district headquarters hospital every day. Furthermore, patients and their attendants are facing a lot of problems in getting proper treatment as there is no special malaria ward in the district headquarters hospital. Malaria-affected people are mainly being admitted to the medicine ward of the hospital. However, they face many hurdles in getting proper treatment as there are only 27 beds in the medicine ward while the number of admitted patients is over 100. As a result, patients can be seen lying on the floor of the medicine ward undergoing treatment. Similarly, the paediatrics ward has only 35 beds but the patients outnumber the beds available.
Shockingly, many children with guardians by their side can be seen undergoing treatment for the disease lying near the toilets of the hospital. This has sparked sharp resentment and anger among the patients and their attendants but they choose to stay mum owing to absence of any alternative. The local intelligentsia has alleged that if the condition of the district headquarters hospital is so poor then the quality of healthcare in the primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs) can very well be construed. On the other hand, the district health department has claimed to have distributed medicated mosquito nets to people and undertaken awareness programmes to sensitise the residents. The department distributed mosquito nets in every block in 2020 and has plans to distribute similar mosquito nets in 2024, officials said.
However, people in rural areas do not use these mosquito nets during sleep. They use them instead to cover crops on their farmlands. Some others also wash these nets and put it to other use. The district health department said that they have been sensitising people to make proper use of nets. The district administration is also putting efforts to sensitise people in this regard. When contacted, the chief district medical officer (CDMO) Dr Lalmohan Routray said that more malaria patients are being identified due to change in season.
Currently, we do not have any plan to establish a special malaria ward due to a shortage of beds in the hospital, he said. The new building of the hospital is under construction and shifting some wards to the new building will ease the shortage of beds. Moreover, the health department is also conducting ‘Daman’ camps on malaria eradication, spraying DDT in rural areas and conducting awareness programmes to check the spread of the disease, he added.
