Season’s first malaria case reported in district

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 17

A positive case of malaria – season’s first one - has been reported from Senipur village in the district.

Dharminder Kaur (18), wife of Balbir Singh, was reported positive with it.

While a team of health officials visited the village falling in the Jamsher block, the team members took four blood samples from the village. Eight scrap containers and 15 tyres were also checked for the prevalence of malaria or dengue larvae in the district on the occasion.

While the Health Department has a target of rendering the district malaria-free, this has been the only positive case of malaria reported in the city this year. Meanwhile, teams also visited homes in the Basti Peerdad locality here today, where residents had complained of problems arising due to sewerage overflow and polluted water accumulation in the locality.

Fifty two homes were visited by the health officials and seven blood samples of residents were taken today. The health teams also disbursed 2,000 chlorine tablets in the locality, where one case of fever was also reported. At Basti Peerdaad, two coolers, 11 scrap containers and three tyres were also checked.

While health teams had visited 58 homes at Basti Peerdaad on Thursday, they had also taken 2,000 chlorine tablets, checked four coolers, 10 scrap containers and four tyres in the area yesterday. Two cases of gastroenteritis and nausea had been reported in the locality.

On Wednesday as well, teams had visited 914 homes and distributed 4,000 chlorine tablets in the Basti Peerdaad area.

District IDSP in charge Dr Surinder Kumar said, “The situation is under control as far as diseases are concerned this year. While only one positive case of malaria has been reported in the district, the patient was attended to properly and all medicines have been provided. With the summers nearing, health teams have also started checking tyres, coolers and scrap containers for malaria and dengue larvae. Within a month, ‘Dry Day’ drives shall also be started in the district to prevent dengue and malaria larvae from developing.”