Andhra Pradesh: Unidentified diseases kill 58 in Visakhapatnam

[Ronan Kelly]

Unidentified fever kills 12 in Visakhapatnam, efforts on
Jul 07, 2011 | INN| Hyderabad.

Health Minister D.L. Ravindra Reddy on Thursday said that efforts are on to identify an unspecified fever which has claimed the lives of 12 tribals in Mannem of Visakhapatnam districts and added that medical teams have already been dispatched to the region.

The Minister is set to visit Visakhapatnam on July 9 to collect a firsthand account of the illness. The district Collector informed the Minister that some 10 to 12 people have died due to the mystery fever.

"Whether it is malaria or diarrhoea is not clear," Health and Medical Education Minister D.L. Ravindra Reddy said.

He added that 20 medical teams have been dispatched from the district head quarters to the tribal area.

?As many as five doctors and staff nurses and others have been sent for enquiry,? the Minister said.


Expressing concern over the deaths, the Minister asserted that efforts would be made to update their awareness and then provide medical care to them as fast as possible.
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http://www.asianage.com/india/unidentified-fever-kills-12-visakhapatnam-efforts-749

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Unidentified fever kills 12 in Visakhapatnam

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Unidentified fever kills 12 in Visakhapatnam

Deaths in Visakha: DL admits to lapses, says relief work for Agency areas on
While admitting that proper relief and medicines had not reached the Agency areas and some mandals in Visakhapatnam where an unidentified disease has claimed at least 59 lives in the past three months, Health and Medical Education Minister DL Ravindra Reddy on Monday said that efforts are on to control the mosquito menace in the region.

Dr Ravindra Reddy denied before media persons at the state Secretariat that there was a malarial epidemic as reported in a section of the press, but admitted that there was one death due to Malaria and 58 deaths reported in a span of two and a half months were due to some other diseases.

?The World Bank has been giving aid to the Centre which supplied a powerful synthetic spray ? ?pyrethroid? to be used for killing the mosquitoes,? the Health Minister revealed.

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http://www.bharatwaves.com/news/story-20680.html

 

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Re: Andhra Pradesh: Unidentified diseases kill 58 in Visakhapatnam

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfe...gterm-plan-for-malaria-prevention/754005.html

Andhra CM orders long-term plan for malaria prevention
PTI | 01:07 PM,Jul 11,2011
Visakhapatnam, Jul 11 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh Tribal Welfare Minister P Balaraju today said that the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had directed the district administration to prepare a long-term plan for prevention of malaria in Visakhapatnam agency area. Talking to reporters here, Balaraju said that Chief Minister, during a transit halt at Visakhapatnam airport last night, held a review meeting with local legislators and officials. Chief Minister also asked the district officials to prepare a master plan for Visakhapatnam city, to solve the problems related to drinking water supply, drainage, and roads. The minister said that number of malaria cases in 11 mandals in the tribal area of the district had come down compared to the last year. This year only 1,800 malaria cases were detected as against 6,000 last year. Stating that 36 Public Health Centres were operating in 11 mandals of the Agency Area currently, he said a few more PHCs would be opened. The vacant posts of 24 doctors in the area would be filled up soon, he said.

 

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Re: Andhra Pradesh: Unidentified diseases kill 58 in Visakhapatnam - malaria suspected

Re: Andhra Pradesh: Unidentified diseases kill 58 in Visakhapatnam - malaria suspected

There is a practice in certain regions of referring to any illness that is not laboratory confirmed as due to "unknown disease", which may be what is happening here...

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/regions/visakhapatnam/malaria-hits-agency-mandals-591

Malaria hits Agency mandals
June 30, 2011 DC Visakhapatnam .aaa.Shareemailprint..June 29: The Agency tracts of north coastal Andhra are reeling under malaria with three persons succumbing in Pachipenta mandal of Vizianagaram and hundreds of bedridden with little or no medical help from the government. However, the Visakhapatnam collector, Mr Luv Agarwal, made a couple of trips and assigned a senior officer to each Agency mandal.

The Human Rights Forum, meanwhile, said the situation in Visakhapatnam was grim. The HRF general secretary, Mr V.S. Krishna, said a four-member HRF team toured five villages of G Madugula mandal on Tuesday. Located in Solabam and Gaduthuru panchayats, three of the five villages they visited were remote habitations. He said it was clear that adivasis were being afflicted principally with malaria (the deadly falciparum variety) and gastro-enteritis but have not had proper access to health and medical care.

He said as per the media reports, over 30 adivasis have succumbed to malaria since the rains arrived. The government’s response to this crisis has been pathetic. Even though it is a known fact that malaria and gastro-enteritis visit the Agency before and during the monsoon months, hardly any preventable steps were taken. The medical and health department has been consistently trying to play down the extent of the crisis and only resorting to ad hoc measures. The anti-larval spraying operations have not been done in a single village (not even Solabam and Gaduthuru which are both panchayat headquarters).

The first round of spraying should have been completed in late March-early April and the second by June-July, followed by a third round in November-December. It is only recently that the first round has started and that too in only some selected villages.
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