AGARTALA, March 6 � Keeping in mind the last year�s nightmarish experience, the Health establishment in Tripura would launch a Statewide DDT spray very shortly to tackle malaria outbreak effectively.
As many as 190 teams for spraying DDT are ready to begin DDT spray in the malaria prone districts of Dhalai, Gomati, Khowai , North and South. The State has sufficient quantity of DDT stock � around five MT.
The Centre has already given three lakh malaria kits for speedy identification of malaria positive patients and all these would be sent to respective CMOs to ensure effective vigil against the deadly disease.
�We are going to launch DDT spray from first week of this month, well before the malaria season which starts from April/May, said National Health Mission (State) Director Sandeep K Mahatme here.
He said the entire Health establishment has geared up to avoid outbreak of malaria since the State witnessed a horrible situation in tackling the deadly disease last year.
According to government figures, altogether 96 patients died of malaria last year while the number of total affected people stood at 47,446. Worried by the outbreak of malaria, the health workers had collected around 5.80 lakh blood samples in search of the deadly disease.
As part of precautionary measures, the State has already sought one lakh medicated mosquito nets to distribute in the State�s vulnerable pockets. �Since there is no provision of procuring mosquito nets under NHM, the State Government is planning to buy 50,000 mosquito nets before April�, said an official of Health department.
Worried by the outbreak of malaria, the Centre had sent experts to find out the reason behind skyrocketing of malaria positive cases. After conducting the study, the team has submitted their report before the competent authority.
