The  monsoon that brought in cheers after filling of lakes, boosting farming and tourism for Udaipur,  however, has  lead to a spurt in water-borne diseases specially in the remotely situated tribal villages of the district. At Amlia village in Jhadol tehsil, an outbreak of malaria and viral fever is being feared after reports came in of seven deaths here in past twenty days. However, the medical team which has been camping in the village for two days claimed that the deaths took place due to varied reasons and there is nothing to panic.

Meanwhile, the department have screened more than 360 patients in two days after collection of blood slides and only one patient have been found infected of malaria.  Taking precautions to prevent any outbreak, the health department is on a door-to-door campaign. Temephos and other medicines are being sprayed and Gambusia fish known to devour the larva of mosquitoes have been dropped in fifteen of the water bodies of the area to control the spread of malaria.

“ A team of ten people including doctors, lab technician and nurses are working in the field to detect the patients who are largely suffering from viral and seasonal fever” said Dr Ragvendra Rai, the deputy chief medical and health officer. Of the 360 blood slides diagnosed, only one has been found malarial positive, hence there is nothing like an outbreak situation, Dr Rai said.

The seven persons who died were from different areas and age groups, in the village that is spread in some 18 kilometers. So there is no endemic situation here, however, many people are suffering from common ailments like cold, viral infections, influenza etc which is primarily due to accumulation of stagnant water and not maintaining proper hygiene in the season.

by Geetha Sunil Pillai