Pvt doctors must report cases of malaria: BMC….Pratibha Masand
MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now asked private practitioners and clinicians to report any malaria case to their nearest civic health post. This, say civic officials, will help avoid a relapse of the monsoon affliction.
BMC held a meeting of all private practitioners of the L Ward–one of the worst-hit zones in terms of monsoon diseases-on Wednesday. Civic officials sensitized private doctors on the correct medication and dose for malaria and emphasized the urgency of reporting malaria cases.
“All we are asking private practitioners is that they take down the addresses of all their patients and inform us if they get a malaria positive patient. That way, it will be easier for us to track them and follow up with them,” said Dr Sanjay Phunde, health officer, L Ward.
Civic doctors also pointed out the importance of complete malaria medication dosage to avoid relapse. “Generally, when patients start feeling all right after three-four days of taking medicines, they do not complete the dose. Not getting temperature spikes in the evening does not mean that malaria has gone in three days,” said Dr Rupal Parihar, medicine department lecturer, Sion Hospital.
Civic investigators from the 13 health posts of L Ward, which includes Sion, Kurla and Chunabhatti, have been going from house to house to check for fever. “If they find fever patients, they give a dose of chloroquine immediately and collect slides for malaria testing. Those who do test positive are administered primaquine dose in a followup to avoid a relapse,” said Dr Phunde.
The exercise, he said, had caused a drop in the number of cases between March and May. “We had collected a total of 7,000 slides in March and 708 people had tested positive. In May, 11,500 slides were collected and 360 people tested positive,” he said.
Private practitioners, though, say the sheer number of patients makes it difficult to note everybody’s address.
BMC is trying to hook up private practitioners with civic health posts across the city. “Malaria programmes and the plan of action are active in most wards. Since the L Ward is high risk, the activities have been more aggressive. Since most private practitioners stick to the treatment they had learned in medical courses, we have been sensitizing them to the newer national protocols,” said Dr Anil Bandivdekar, executive health officer, BMC.