Andhra Pradesh: Vector Borne Diseases

[Ronan Kelly]

Tribals shiver as malaria grips Agency belt
Santosh Patnaik



A majority have been diagnosed with falciparum malaria

Four persons died of cerebral malaria recently

ARAKU VALLEY: With no respite in situation, the incidence of falciparum malaria is assuming epidemic proportions in the Agency belt of Visakhapatnam.

At Gannela Primary Health Centre, out of 40 cases registered this month, a majority have been diagnosed with falciparum malaria.

?All cases have been confirmed as falciparum malaria at our PHC and we are giving timely treatment,? Vishnupriya, PHC medical officer told a team of reporters from Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

The PHC in Araku mandal covers 158 hamlets spread over eight panchayats.

Enquiries reveal that the cases identified by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) have not been included in the list of malaria patients being reported by PHCs in the agency to the higher authorities.

?We are asked to use rapid diagnosis kits wherever required. We also send the blood smears for slide tests to diagnose it clinically,? Lakoi Lakshmi, ASHA worker from Bishnamguda, said.

She could bring one patient to Gannela PHC whereas Killo Jamuna and KilloMutyalamma, who were tested malaria positive by her through rapid diagnosis kits, refused to trek a distance of five km to reach the PHC.

The ANMs and the ASHA workers have been advised to administer the drugs to patients on time.

However, in most cases it was found that the tribals discontinue the course midway through developing drug resistance.

?Four patients referred to the Community Health Centre at Araku died recently due to cerebral malaria,? Araku ZPTC member Killo Surendra told The Hindu.

Vacant posts of doctors and paramedical staff in 33 PHCs in 11 agency mandals in the district have also forced the authorities to provide care to patients only during daytime despite in-patient facility. Posts of one Additional District Medical and Health Officer, one deputy civil surgeon, 23 civil assistant surgeons and several staff nurses are vacant.

Free food scheme

About 2,200 malaria cases were confirmed at the recent meeting of Zilla Parishad. CPI (M) district secretary Ch. Narsinga Rao launched free food scheme at the PHCs.

He said for want of food, many poor tribals were not able to continue their treatment in hospitals and decried the authorities for trying to downplay the gravity of the situation.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/01/stories/2010070162520600.htm

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Malaria - 4 fatalities

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Malaria - 4 fatalities

Two more tribals die in Agency



Special Correspondent



Cause of deaths yet to be ascertained

VISAKHAPATNAM: Two Girijans died while undergoing treatment at the Community Health Centre in the revenue divisional headquarters of Paderu in the Visakha Agency in the early hours of Wednesday. While it was suspected that they died due to malaria, District Medical and Health Officer U. Swarajya Lakshmi said the death was due to other reasons.

Death of Ammedeli Rukmini, 35, of Pedabayalu and Matham Ramunaidu, 35, of Ganneruputtu in G. Madugula mandal was reported on Wednesday. While Rukmini was admitted to the CHC on Tuesday with high fever, Ramunaidu was in the hospital for the last two days.

Dr. Swarajya Lakshmi said the man was a chronic TB patient and both his lungs were badly affected. He had tested positive for malaria in the past but it was not known if he was suffering from malaria when he was admitted to the CHC.

The woman died one hour after she was admitted and the cause of her death had not been ascertained. The Additional DMHO was asked to visit her village and conduct an examination and review the situation.

Five died due to malaria in the Visakha Agency during this month and the two suspected malaria deaths occurred just a day after a three-member Cabinet Sub-Committee, formed by Chief Minister to study the conditions following reports of large number of cases of malaria and other fevers in the Agency area of north coastal Andhra and swine flu in the city, completed its two-day tour and returned to Hyderabad.

Parties' claim

Girijans and political parties claimed that there were many cases of malaria in the Agency villages, particularly in the remote habitations and the seasonal fever might have claimed more lives.

Political parties blamed the government for not supplying sufficient quantity of medicines and not making efforts to fill the vacancies of Medical Officers and paramedical staff in the Visakha Agency. There was also a demand to provide nutritious food to the malaria patients and those suffering with fevers.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/01/stories/2010070154880500.htm

Comment: Of note two H1N1 fatalities have been reported from Visakhapatnam on June 18th and June 30th. See this thread for details;

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125003&page=2

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Malaria - 5 fatalities

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Malaria - 5 fatalities

Two women die of 'dengue fever' in Chittoor
TNN, Jul 17, 2010, 08.07am IST

TAMBALLAPALLE: Two women died of suspected dengue fever in Tamballapalle constituency in Chittoor district on Saturday.

The deceased have been identified as Asraf Unnissa, 40, and S.Shantamma, 45, both hailing from Kandukuru village of Pedda Tippa Samudram mandal in the Tamballapalle constituency. Ashraf Unnissa who has been suffering from fever for the past ten days has been admitted in the TTD-run super specialty hospital SVIMS couple of days ago breathed her last on Saturday night.

While another woman has been admitted in a private hospital at Bangalore and she was declared dead on Saturday evening. Though about 40 people have allegedly died of dengue and chikungunya four years ago, the civic officials are least bothered about hygenic measures.

Meanwhile, the villagers said that some 20 more people are suffering from theprolonged fever and are getting treatment in various hospitals across the district.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...gue-fever-in-Chittoor/articleshow/6179198.cms

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Vector Borne Diseases

Guntur in the grip of fevers



Staff Reporter

DMHO and GGH Superintendent jointly monitoring the situation
Special wards set up for dengue patients in government hospitals

Anti-larval operations intensified in the vulnerable areas

Guntur: With the Southwest monsoon bringing copious rains, fevers too have engulfed the district like wildfire. The Medical and Health (M&H) Department is grappling with viral fevers that afflicted a large number of people. Scores of dengue fever cases have been reported and also a few deaths but the M&H officials maintain that most of the patients are suffering from serious complications not arising from dengue.

Ponnur, Chilakaluripet and other towns and the district headquarters too have thousands of people admitted to hospitals with fevers, which required urgent steps to curb the menace.
As the situation turned worse, special wards were set apart in government hospitals for dengue patients and anti-larval operations have been intensified in the vulnerable areas to check proliferation of mosquitoes.

While necessary steps were taken in the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Guntur and area hospitals, private doctors were asked to submit daily reports of the types of fevers treated by them to facilitate concerted efforts for controlling the diseases.

The situation is being jointly monitored by District Medical and Health Officer M Gopi Naik and GGH Superintendent D Phanibhushan.

Emphasis is laid on continuous flow of information about the seasonal diseases prevalent in remote areas which have poor access to hospitals.

Medical camps

Special medical camps are being conducted in such places and patients are being referred to either the GGH or other nearest major hospitals.

This is yielding the desired results to some extent but hundreds of fresh cases of fevers are being reported every day posing a major challenge to the M&H officials who are obviously bogged down by staff constraints and poor infrastructure.

For putting up better performance, the GGH has recently submitted proposals to Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad for procurement of equipment worth nearly Rs 5 crore. It was around the same time that Government's Principal Secretary (Health) J Satyanarayana had inspected the GGH and discussed its requirements.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/08/21/stories/2010082153400700.htm

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Vector Borne Diseases

Viral fevers rampant in Agency, eight dieAugust 19th, 2010
DC Correspondent
khammam, Aug. 18: Viral fevers have been spreading in the Agency mandals across the district over the past week.

The fevers claimed eight lives in four mandals. At least, 30 people are suffering from fevers. Dengue and malaria arer spreading rapidly in Wazed, Dummugudem, Burgampadu and Aswapuram mandals. Two swine flu cases have been reported in the district so far.
A resident of Kothagudem, Lakshmana Rao, was shifted to Hyderabad from Khammam hospital on a complaint of swine flu four days ago.

Ramadevi of Morumpalli Bangar under Burgampadu mandal was shifted to Hyderabad from Kothagudem hospital on Tuesday on a complaint of swine flu.

In Sundaraiahnagar under Burgampadu mandal, three persons died of viral fevers. P. Priyanka, 12, died on Monday, B. Rambabu, 38 and M. Ramulu, 35, died on Tuesday. Venkatamma, 50, of Riksha Colony under the same mandal died of dengue fever. Poojitha, 4, of Gondigudem under Aswapuram mandal died of malaria on Tuesday night. She was treated by local RMP and on Tuesday the girl was shifted to Bhadrachalam. Doctors declared that she died of malaria.
In Venkatapuram mandal, students are suffering from fevers at Chiruthapalli and Laxminagaram residential schools. A student, V. Seetha, 13, died of fever on Tuesday. No medical tests have been conducted in the residential schools so far. Fevers spreads rapidly in the villages due to negligence of the medical staff at the primary health centres.

Spraying of bleaching powder and anti-larva liquids was not yet been taken by the medical department. K. Gagaiah, 30, of Chundrupatla under Wazed mandal died of fever on Tuesday night. M.D. Sahu, 55, of Laxminagaram under Dummugudem mandal died of malaria.

When this correspondent contacted the DM&HO, Mr, VishnuMohan, he said ?We had reviewed the situation across the Agency with all PHC doctors and staff.? Medical teams were sent to the affected villages, he added.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/vijayawada/viral-fevers-rampant-agency-eight-die-348

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Vector Borne Diseases

Malaria claims 3 lives in AgencyAugust 23rd, 2010
DC Correspondent
Aug. 22: Three persons died of malaria so far in the Agency. The Bhadrachalam Integrated Tribal Development Agency has constituted special medical teams for all the 14 mandals which were affected by the Godavari floods.

The ITDA is making efforts to improve sanitary conditions in the mandals and to check viral fevers and diarrhoea. In all, 14 mandals of Wazed, Venkatapuram, Cherla, Dummugudem, Chintoor, VRC Puram, Kunavaram, Velairpadu, Kukunur, Bhadrachalam, Burgampadu, Aswapuram, Manuguru and Pinapaka were affected by the Godavari floods. To detect malarial cases in the villages and to know the seriousness of diseases, platelet kits are being used. Rapid fever survey was conducted by the medical department in the purview of 49 primary health centres out of 67 PHCs. Besides, rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) are being conducted by the medical teams.

Till August 20, 2,40,740 people were tested through the RDT. Out of them 1,429 malaria positive cases have been identified. Medical teams formed under the supervision of the ITDA have got Rs 30 lakh funds for the control of diseases. By spending up these funds ITDA plan to spray anti-larva liquid in all residential schools and hostels across the Agency. The panchayat raj department released Rs 10 lakh to maintain sanitation.

Speaking to this correspondent, ITDA project officer, Mr Praveen kumar, said viral fevers in the Agency are under control.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/vijayawada/malaria-claims-3-lives-agency-602

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Vector Borne Diseases

Viral fever, dengue deaths rise
August 30th, 2010
DC Correspondent
Hyderabad, Aug. 29: With the monsoon in full swing, cases of seasonal diseases like viral fever, dengue, malaria, typhoid and diarrhoea are increasing and continue to claim lives in the districts.

In Krishna district alone, seasonal diseases have claimed around 15 lives including that of four children in the last 10 days.

Suspected dengue cases are also creating panic in the slums and backward areas in Vijayawada and other mandals. Three girls have died of fever in Vijayawada.

Moreover, government hospitals in Nuzvid, Gudivada, Jaggaiahpet, Mylavaram, Tiruvuru and other centres have no facilities to test or treat the dengue fevers and patients? families have to spend huge amounts for treatment in corporate hospitals.

The CPI(M) city floor leader, Mr Ch. Baburao, alleged that the civic administration in Vijayawada had failed to eradicate the mosquito menace and prevent viral fevers.

In Khammam, viral fever and mosquito-borne diseases have claimed 49 lives and six people have died of diarrhoea in the last 20 days.

The Telugu Desam district convener and Mylavaram MLA, Mr Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, also criticised the district administration for failing to take preventive measures to check seasonal diseases.

Meanwhile, district collector Mr Peeyush Kumar said instructions had been given to all panchayats to conduct sanitation drives from August 30-September 15 to check the outbreak of seasonal diseases and improve hygienic conditions.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/hyderabad/viral-fever-dengue-deaths-rise-709