Spread your mosquito nets, the malaria menace is back in Mumbai………..Priyanka Sharma
Mumbai: The monsoon may have just begun, but the rising incidence of malaria and fever in the city has already become a cause of serious concern. Compared to last year, the city has seen a rise of 28% in malaria cases and 22% escalation in the number of fever cases recorded so far.
According to records with the civic health department, 1,175 cases of malaria and 3,474 cases of fever have been reported in the citys private and public hospitals since June 1.
On Monday alone, 44 cases of malaria and 171 cases of fever were admitted to the citys hospitals. Malaria has also claimed two lives since June 1, said civic health authorities.
Mumbai, with its ever-burgeoning population, humid climate and optimum temperature, is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes. The hectic construction activity has only served to worsen the situation, said Dr Arvind Bhonsale, a paediatrician, who has treated at least six patients with malaria at his Kandivli clinic in the last two weeks.
Kurla, with 261 cases of malaria is the worst affected, said Dr Anuradha Pednekar, a Shiv Sena corporator. Water stagnation be it in puddles on the road, in discarded rubber tyres, in water tanks, or even in buckets used to store water inside homes is what makes Mumbaikars vulnerable to mosquitoes, said doctors. In the past 15 days, my patient load has more than doubled. Cases of malaria too have peaked, said Dr SN Acharya, a Kurla-based general practitioner.
The soaring numbers of malaria and fever cases has even caught the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) off guard. In a general body meeting on Monday, leader of the opposition in the BMC, Rajhans Singh, raised a motion and questioned the civic administrations initiative to curb the menace.
Upendra Doshi, a Congress corporator, blamed the civic bodys single minded attention on the census. Most of the health staff has been deployed for census work. How can you expect the cases reported to be treated properly, said Doshi. Yogesh Sagar, BJP corporator from Kandivli, went a step further and said, If any instances of larval breeding of mosquitoes are found, the ward officers of that area would be suspended.
The leaders also discussed at length the civic administrations failure in fogging and disinfecting mosquito breeding grounds in water logged areas. However, Ashish Kumar Singh, additional municipal commissioner, rebuffed such claims.
We are doing our best to curb the spread of the disease. An active surveillance team is deployed at all the chronic spots in every ten days. At the same time, fogging and disinfecting has been done at every susceptible area, said Singh.
With inputs from Deepa Suryanarayan