VIJAYAWADA: A whopping 10,943 malaria cases and 890 dengue cases were registered in Andhra Pradesh till July 30. Officials claim that there had been no deaths so far from the two mosquito-borne diseases but a girl had died in the Nellore region owing to suspected dengue.The highest number of dengue victims in the State were found in Anantapur district, where the figure stood at 229 this year.
On the other hand, East Godavari district saw the highest number of malaria cases at 3,849. Similarly, even in other districts, hundreds of people are getting affected with these vector-borne diseases and are flocking to health centres for treatment. People living in rural and tribal areas of these districts are more prone to viral fever. For malaria, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Krishna and West Godavari districts are among the worst-affected. Chittoor, Prakasam, Visakhapatnam, Krishna and Guntur districts saw the highest cases of dengue.
As far as malaria fever is concerned, many people in the coastal and remote regions are getting affected with malaria. Dengue cases have been more rampant in semi-urban areas due to lack of proper sanitation. The stagnation of rainwater in the surroundings is resulting in the growth of mosquitoes that cause malaria and dengue.Apart from medical teams, the State government has also rolled out campaigns to inform, educate and communicate with the people with regard to the two vector-borne diseases.
The health deparment has told medical staff, including doctors, to work in East Godavari, Visakhapatnam and other malaria-hit districts. Despite this, there is a shortage of doctors. “We are conducting house-to-house medical check-ups in all agency and tribal villages of the State. We have deployed health teams in those areas that are badly affected where spraying and fogging are taking place regularly. We told the people to keep their surroundings clean,” said Savitri, State Nodal officer.The officials are clearly stating that there is no death cases registered in the State so far from both malaria and dengue. However, on July 25, a girl from Nellore city died with dengue symptoms but no dengue test was done on her.
Officials said only Elisa test can confirm the presence of dengue virus and without that test it cannot be officially delared as dengue.