Hindustan Times 27.08.2010
Civic body to inquire into every malaria deathThree more Mumbaiites succumbed to malaria on Thursday, taking the toll to 41 this month. The civic body now plans to conduct an inquiry into each malaria death to assess whether the patient was diagnosed and given appropriate treatment at an early stage of the disease. A senior civic official said
they would track down the physician, who the patient had first consulted, and question him/her to find out whether treatment had been given as per the national anti-malaria treatment protocol.
“We will ask the doctor why he/she failed to give the correct treatment,” the official said, adding that the civic body had been conducting workshops to sensitise doctors to malaria symptoms and treatment.
An analysis of malaria cases has shown that most patients are from the slums and report to civic-run hospitals only when the disease has progressed and caused multi-organ failure.
“We have found that most of these patients are not prescribed medicine as per the protocol at an earlier stage,” Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner (health), said.
The civic body has witnessed a 30 per cent decline in positivity (people testing positive) as well as in admissions compared to July. Malaria’s latest victims were a 28-year-old woman from Jogeshwari, a 60-year-old man from Parel and a 55-year-old man from Goregaon. Between Wednesday and Thursday morning, 182 people were hospitalised with malaria, 467 with fever, 53 with gastroenteritis and 10 with dengue.
