Source: The Sangai Express / S Singlianmang Guite
Lamka, October 12:
The number of Munpi villagers affected with Malaria has rose to 32 as of today but is under control, officials from the District Malaria Department said.
Alerted after discovering 15 patients from a tiny hamlet of Henglep sub-division on the hospital beds inside the township, the department acted promptly and dispatched an advance team for mass medical treatment to the village that need 20 kms of trekking by foot.
Another team had also conducted spot investigation and disbursed mosquito nets and sprayed DDT in and around the village keeping the situation under control for now, Dr FT Thienkhogin, District Malaria Officer who headed the spot investigation team told this correspondent.
The officer claimed that reluctance to receive medication and not using mosquito nets by the villages was one of the reasons for rapid increase in the number of people affected by the deadly disease.
At present a little more than eighty people were in the village and all of them were now free from the parasite, 'it is upto them that they take precautionary measures as each bed in the village was provided with a mosquito net and enough medication were already stocked in the village, the officer added.
According to the villagers the deadly disease was prevalent every time they shifted their cultivation to Leimatak area, which the MSF clinic here said was the main region Malaria was detected next to Munpi village.
A Lab technician of the MSF claimed that all of the parasites detected from 32 Munpi villagers were of Plasmodium Falciparam, the most lethal of the three malarial parasites that has the potential even to affect the brain.
Meanwhile, a relief camp organizes by KKL & KSO for the affected villagers at KKL Complex here have registered atleast 82 occupants as of now.
It was not known whether the figure provided by the official were accurate as it was doubtful if some inmates of the district hospital here who identified themselves as someone settling adjoining to Munpi village and suffering from the same disease were included.
Since officials so far maintain that no malaria cases were detected from villages other than Munpi.