Imphal, July 07: State health teams have been pressed into service to contain outbreak of seasonal diseases in pockets of Bishnupur and Ukhrul districts.

According to sources, malaria outbreak in Thinungei Mayai Leikai of Bishnupur district has claimed the lives of two young boys, namely Laishram Laisana (15) and Laishram Bishwajit (10) both breathing their last on July 5 at medical centres in the capital city.

Moreover, some other Thinungei villagers are informed to have been incapacitated with tell tale symptoms of malarial infections, the source maintained while confiding that a high level medical team led by the State Malaria Officer (SMO) H Nimaichand Singh has already reached the affected village today to study and confirm cause of the two deaths.

When contacted the SMO said "A Rapid Response Team (RRT) headed by District Malaria Officer (DMO) Bishnupur LR Kom has already begun conducting health care related activities at the area such as fogging and spraying of Dicloro Diphenyl Tricholoethane (DDT)".

Further contending that the district RRT personnel had conducted mass rapid fever survey in and around the village besides collecting blood samples from suspected malaria stricken patients, Nimaichand nevertheless expressed reluctance to confirm the cause of deaths to be due to malaria.

"We will supervise the activities of the district RRT and extend support material and manpower in addition to investigating the cause of the two reported deaths", he added.

On the otherhand, based on report of large number of villagers in Nambisa, Maku and Pushing areas in the interior of Ukhrul district close to Myanmar border, catching fever the district's RRT had already rushed there to investigate the matter.

"By tomorrow or day after this RRT would furnish its report to us and necessary measures would be taken up according to the report," the SMO maintained.

It is informed that to combat the epidemic in the state the central Government has already sanctioned requisite fund for opening separate malaria units in all the districts.

Each unit will have one post of project coordinator, Information, Education and Communication consultant, finance consultant, monitoring and evaluation consultant, 14 malaria technical supervisors and 100 multipurpose health workers, he said.

Recruitment process of these posts is underway in full swing and they would be appointed very soon, he added.

The SMO also recounted that Manipur recorded its highest malarial casualty with 55 deaths in Ukhrul and Senapati districts in 1994 while no such tragedy was reported in 1990, 1991 and 2000.Four persons died of the same epidemic in Churachandpur district last year, he added.

As part of the state vector borne disease control programme to combat malaria outbreak over one lakh chemically treated mosquito nets have been distributed across the state since last year, Nimaichand said adding that all RRTs particularly in the hill districts have been kept on alert to combat any possible outbreak of the epidemic.

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