MOSQUITO NET SUPPLY STOPPED IN BALANGIR
SINCE 2009
Monday,
27 April 2015 | SUDHIR MISHRA | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar
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Even
as the Government claims that it provides chemically treated mosquito nets in
the malaria prone area to prevent further spread of malaria, besides medicine
and other measures, including two rounds of indoor residual spray, reports from
different parts of Balangir district reveal a totally different picture.
According
to sources, the number of people affected in brain malaria was on the rise in
the district. A total of 4,542 people were detected as suffering from brain
malaria in the district in 2013 and the number rose up to 7,493 in 2014.
According
to sources, the Government of Odisha supplied chemically treated mosquito nets
to the people to check further spread of malaria in 2009.The life span of the
mosquito net is three years. Moreover, the chemically treated net is subject to
wear and tear in the three year.
The
Government should have supplied new chemically treated mosquito nets and
replaced the old ones by 2012. However, due to some ‘hurdles in procurement and
supply of the mosquito nets’ at State level, the old mosquito nets could not be
supplied.
According
to sources, the change of Government at the Centre also resulted in late
arrival of money. Financial assistance for the year 2014-15 reached Balangir
late in January, which affected the spraying of indoor residual spray in the
district too. According to sources, indoor residual spray is taken on two
rounds in a year, first in the second week of May and another in the second
week of September.
When
the money came in January, it could not be utilised. First of all, the new
mosquito nets were not available since 2012 and to aggravate it, the residual
spray was stopped, which resulted in increase in number of malaria patients
including the brain malaria.
“This
year, on the World Malaria Day we have started indoor residual spray in
Patrapali village under Lathore CHC of Khpakhol block, which is one of most
malaria endemic blocks of the district and contributes around 40 per cent
malaria deaths of the district,” said an official here. Last year seven people
had died due to malaria in the district, he informed.
Meanwhile,
even though Balangir district has placed a requirement to supply 8, 57,000 mosquito
nets for the people of the district after a door- to-door survey, it has been
gathering dust at the State level leaving people in the lurch.
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Posting another news published in The Pioneer for perusal of all=======================
MO MASHARI’ GOES AWRY AS RS90 CRORE NOT SPENT
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With Odisha accounting
for 36 per cent of all malaria deaths in the country, the Mo Mashari scheme
with a provision of Rs90 crore seems to have gone awry. Under the scheme, Long
Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLIN) are to be distributed to protect pregnant
women against malaria infection, but the sum of money earmarked for it could not
be spent by the State Health Department.
As per data available,
cases of malaria infected people in the State, which stood at 2.28 lakh in
2013-14, jumped nearly two-fold to reach 3.95 lakh in 2014-15, primarily,
though not entirely, due to the failure of the scheme. On the other hand, the
Health Department statistics reveal that after a steady fall for three years,
malaria deaths have started rising again. The statistics reveal that as many as
100 people died of the infection in 2011, 79 in 2012 and 67 in 2013. However,
the toll took a big upward leap in 2014 with 89 deaths.
An official of the Health
Department, on condition of anonymity, admitted that the department has not
distributed mosquito nets during 2014-15. The Centre too has stopped providing
mosquito nets. Though the department has decided to utilise last financial
year’s fund during 2015-16, it has no information available with it on the
tendering process and procurement of nets.
To everybody’s surprise,
the department had not supplied mosquito nets for 2012-13 and 2013-14 either.
The department had distributed a few nets in Koraput. During that time, it had
given a clarification that the Centre had not supplied the stocks, the official
said.
Recently, Union Health
Minister had informed the Lok Sabha that despite Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
being malaria-prone States, they have fared well in controlling the spread of
the disease. Eighty per cent of malaria deaths are reported from tribal
dominated districts in Odisha. The most cases of malaria deaths are reported
from Malkangiri, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Koraput, Mayurbhanj,
Nuapada, Rayagada and Sundargarh districts, the Minister had said.
It may be mentioned that
Mo Mashari was launched in November 2009 as a programme to protect pregnant
women against malaria through distribution of LLIN. Initially, five districts
with high malaria burdens were targeted in a pilot period from March 2010 to
March 2011, which was expanded to a further two districts in 2012.
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