DEOSRI (CHIRANG), Nov 29 - Paulina Mardi, 35, was returning home with anti-malarial syrup and tablets after taking her malaria-infected three-year-old baby girl, Sonoti, to doctor at Santipur Public Health Centre, 8 km from her residence at Koraibari. She was carrying Sonoti piggyback.
�My husband has gone to sell firewood at Deosri. He would bring daily essentials by his earning of Rs 180-200 to keep the family of six members � they two and their three daughters and one son�, said Paulina.
So, Paulina�s family is unable to spend money on treatment of their children who do not go to schools, they need free health care to survive the attack of diseases.
In Koraibari, already four children and two women had died of malaria last month and another three children died similarly in Deosri area in Chirang district this month.
A total of 438 persons have been infected by malaria in Nakedara, Deosri, Koraibari and Mohonpur since October 8. Among them the number of patients infected with Plasmodium falciparum is more than the patients of Plasmodium vivax.
The ANT (Action Northeast Trust), an NGO active in the district, has taken initiative with the district Health Department to tackle the menace. The activists of the NGO are helping the National Health Mission in distribution of medicines among the malaria-infected patients.
But the situation demands the door-to-door visit in the villages mostly affected with the outbreak, as many aged and young patients are unable to move out from their residences located in backward forest areas for treatment at the health centres which are still far from these villages.
Chirang district Joint Director, Health, Dr D Ramsiyari said already malaria surveillance teams with medicines and other supporting items have been pressed into services in the district to control the menace.
