TURA, Sept 1: Eight people have died from an outbreak of malaria in the last two months in South Garo Hills as the region faces a major outbreak of the disease after a gap of many years.

District health officials say the deaths have taken place in July and August.

“We have five confirmed deaths and another three suspected to be from malaria itself given the symptoms the victims displayed before their demise,” informed medical officials.

The deaths include a 10 years old child in July and a 4 year old baby in August.

The malaria outbreak centered around the coal belt region of Nangalbibra, Siju and Silkigre in Chokpot sub-division jurisdiction.

What has caused this sudden spike has been baffling doctors since malaria has been on the decline over the past many years.

“Historically, South Garo Hills has been a malaria zone. There use to be ten to thirteen thousand infections annually. But by 2017 the numbers came down to as low as 200 cases due to stringent measures taken to contain the disease” says doctors.

Last year there were only 280 malaria cases from January to July.

Doctors suspect the number of infections, and even possible deaths, may be higher in the Nangalbibra zone but detection is difficult because of the migrant population.

“There is a large floating population in Nangalbibra so it becomes difficult to track their movement because they migrate frequently. Also, in some areas like Siju the remoteness of the place makes tracking malaria cases a challenge,” say medics.

Places like Rongchu Agal health sub centre are remote and one has to trek through bad roads to reach the place.

While ASHA workers in the village level are provided with testing kits for malaria the delay in transporting the blood slides to the health centres can be a matter of life and death in the villages.

All microscopic centres to test blood samples are located in primary and community health centres and transporting samples from places like Rongchu Agal involves a lot of time, something a patient with malaria cannot wait.

These ASHA workers are also provided with Rapid Test kits for malaria, but the problem with such testing is that it is not foolproof and at times can give out a negative result even if the patient displays symptoms of malaria.

“Because of the distances we are providing presumptive treatment in which we administer malaria drugs for patients having the symptoms. We do not wait for the results because it can take two to three days,” says an ASHA worker.

No new malaria treated bed nets for past few years

One of the reasons being attributed for the sudden rise in malaria cases is suspected to be the lack of fresh supply of medicated bed nets which are provided to villagers in malaria infested zones.

The last time insecticide treated bed nets were provided was allegedly in the year 2020 and their efficacy is said to have long been over.

“There is a need for fresh impregnation of the mosquito bed nets because the efficacy of the previous ones has long diminished,” points out a medical officer.

The big question is- Why were these steps not taken before the onset of the malaria season.

Also Read: Nagaland becomes first state in NE region to launch Aadhaar linked birth registration

Also Watch

Find latest news from every corner of Northeast India at hubnetwork.in, your online source for breaking news, video coverage.

Also, Follow us on-

Twitter-twitter.com/nemediahub

Youtube channel- www.youtube.com/@NortheastMediaHub2020

Instagram- www.instagram.com/nemediahub