Over 100 die by malaria, 30,000 suffering from fever
MIL/Agencies/AP, Apr 15, 2006.
Gauhati, (India) Apr. 13 - Medical authorities have announced an alert in India's northeastern state of Assam after an outbreak of malaria, which caused death for over 100 people, though officials are quoting less numbers.
Assam Health Minister Bhumidhar Barman revealed that Emergency Teams have been sent to the affected areas, in the eastern part of the state, to perform blood tests and spray insecticides to kill the mosquitoes causing malaria.
The minister said that up to 20,000 people were suffering from the illness, but that it was still not considered an epidemic. But according to other local sources, the affected people exceed 30,000.
The Minister said that the strain of malaria appears to be increasingly resistant to the most common anti-malarial drugs. "We are in touch with federal health authorities on the use of alternative drugs."
As per AP the heavily forested areas along Assam's border with the Himalayan nation of Bhutan has also been hit by the outbreak, Barman said.
Up to 600 people die every year in malaria outbreaks in India's northeast, an isolated area of seven states. In 2005, federal health authorities rushed 100,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets to distribute among the poor in Assam
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