RAJAHMUNDRY: Malaria seems to have taken the agency region of East Godavari in its grip. Threeyear- old girl Murla Nandini of Marrivada village in Rampachodavaram mandal died of malaria on Sunday and Illapu Durga Bhavani (7) of D Kotturu village in Addateegala mandal succumbed to the disease on Monday this week.
These are not the lone cases of malaria deaths in the agency region. Six more malaria- related deaths were reported earlier this month. Though the district administration declared health emergency in agency region, malaria-related deaths are being reported from one place or the other.
The tribals attribute the present state of affairs in the agency region to failure on the part of the officials of the Medical and Health Department and lack of precautionary measures to curb the spread of mosquitoes before the onset of monsoon.
According to sources, the officials failed to complete the first phase of spraying of anti-mosquito repellant in majority of the tribal habitations.
District Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi conducted a review meeting at Rampachodavaram on August 13 and warned of filing FIRs against officials over dereliction of duty in the agency region. He deputed medical officers from plain areas to agency region to control the spread of malaria. However there seems to be no respite and tribals in several villages are still suffering from the disease.
TNIE had reported the increasing cases of malaria in agency region in these columns in its report on July 18.
Reacting over the increasing cases of Malaria deaths Rampachodavaram MLA K K V V V Satyanarayana Reddy attributed the present state of affairs in the agency region to official negligence.
Speaking to TNIE over telephone from Hyderabad, he alleged that ITDA officials have failed to concentrate on health problems of tribals.
COLLECTOR VISITS: Sensing the seriousness of the situation, District Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi visited several tribal villages and interacted with the patients at Primary Health Centres (PHC) on August 7 to assess the intensity of malaria cases in the agency region.
The Collector inspected PHCs at Rajavommangi, Jeddangi and tribal girls residential school. He interacted with patients and students of Asram schools and enquired from them about about their health and the number of malaria cases.
A special officer in the cadre of deputy Collector was posted in each mandal of the agency region to supervise the anti-malaria operations. The Collector said there was no dearth of medicines and if necessary medicines would be sent from plains and asked the medical officers to take initiative to curb the menace of malaria in the agency region.
However the malaria officials claim only three malaria-related deaths occurred in agency region.
As per their records 808 malaria positive cases were reported from June to till date in the agency region including 310 cases in August itself.
pvkrao@epmltd.com