Asia-Pacific Daily Report

Officials reported that five districts in India's southwestern Karnataka state have reported recent outbreaks of malaria, according to the India-based Deccan Herald. According to the newspaper, Bijapur has reported 436 cases, Bagalkot 74, Koppal 275, Chitradurga 15 and Tumkur 214. In 2008 there were reportedly eight deaths due to malaria with 47,160 confirmed cases and 9,957 Plasmodium falciparum-PF (severe cases). In 2009, there were 36,830 confirmed malaria cases and 5,685 PF cases with no reported deaths, according to the newspaper. State health secretary Dr. E V Ramana Reddy said that the government is doing well in controlling malaria. "Every time there is an outbreak of malaria cases we do take immediate action and do the needful. But certain areas are endemic and we can only make efforts to reduce the number of cases," the Deccan Herald quoted Reddy as saying. Reddy said that the lack of workers who go door-to-door in affected areas and distribute medicine was a major hurdle. "We are in the process of recruiting 5,000 health workers. Shortly, we will have more staff to overcome the staff crunch," he added. Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by four kinds of malaria parasites: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. Patients with malaria can be very sick with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like symptoms. While malaria can be fatal, it is generally a preventable disease through vector control methods. Of the estimated 300-500 million cases of malaria that occur each year, more than 1 million people die.

Source:

· http://www.deccanherald.com/content/65994/malaria-outbreak-five-districts.html

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