Malaria is real epidemic: Docs
Swine flu is a threat, but mosquito is closer home ………Malathy Iyer
Mumbai: While hundreds visited Kasturba Hospital in Chinchpokli on Thursday to get themselves tested for H1N1, at least a score were brought to the same hospital in seriously ill condition. The reason for their plight wasnt the swine flu, but the round-theyear pestilence: malaria.
We should be talking about malaria rather than swine flu. I get 20-25 patients with malaria every day, says Dr Umesh Aigal, medical superintendent of Kasturba Hospital, who is amazed at the panic among the masses over the new virus. We cannot take swine flu lightly, but at the moment we are in the danger of forgetting the potency of malaria, dengue and leptospirosis, says civic executive health officer J Thanekar.
Is malaria the real public health challenge? Dr Hemant Thacker, consultant at Jaslok Hospital, certainly believes so. If you compare malaria and swine flu, then malaria is the real danger. The complications, morbidity and fatality associated with malaria is higher, he says. Worse, he says, the incidence of malaria has been growing with the rains playing truant. On Thursday alone, Dr Thacker admitted five patients with malaria in different hospitals. Malaria is the biggest worry right now, he says.
The statistics tell the story. In the first six days of August alone, 13,550 blood samples were tested and 758 tested positive. This is above the daily tally of monsoon diseases. While the toll of malaria has not been highfive in June, six in July and three so far in Augustdoctors say malaria is still the most worrisome disease. On Wednesday, a 65-yearold Worli resident died due to complications arising out of malaria. The day before, a 65-year-old man from Arthur Road and an 18-year-old boy from Wadala died in Kasturba Hospital while another patient from Govandi lost his life in Rajawadi Hospital due to malaria.
In July, of the 88,051 Mumbaikars surveyed, 4,380 tested positive. This is alarming, said a civic doctor. Malaria is endemic to Mumbai. We see spurts every now and then, says Dr Kishore Huigol, who in charge of BMCs malaria cell.
Another doctor points out that many symptoms for malaria are almost common with swine flu. Malarial patients have cold, sore throat and cough. There is a danger of people worrying about swine flu to the extent that malaria is ruled out, he says.
Can malaria be declared an epidemic? In pure public health sense, it cannot.
We have to look at the locus of the disease. In Mumbai, the cases come up in various spots, sometimes they are miles apart. Technically, it cannot be called an epidemic, says Dr Thanekar. But malaria, he concedes, is the biggest challenge facing his department.