After a record number of malaria cases in the city last monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has started plugging loopholes in its system.
After a record number of malaria cases in the city last monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started plugging loopholes in its system.
Dr GT Ambe, the BMC’s executive health officer, said: “The outbreak of malaria in the city made us introspect on the things we got wrong. This year, we have already started working on malaria.”
Civic hospitals in the city had registered a whopping 17,000 malaria cases in July last year. The number then fell down to 2,395 in November.
To begin with, the BMC has started taking action against breeding sites. It has asked builders to ensure that construction sites do not become breeding sites. “Construction sites and construction workers are largely responsible for the spread of malaria in the city. This year, we have asked builders to provide their labourers with mosquito nets. We will continue with health check-ups of workers,” said Dr Ambe.
Builders will have to ensure that their construction sites are mosquito-proof, failing which the municipal corporation will issue stop-work notices. Last year, 69 builders were issued stop-work notices, and 1.5 lakh migrants were checked for malaria.
“In Mumbai, there are a lot of public sector undertakings that hold large chunks of land. We have asked these undertakings to ensure that the areas within their jurisdictions are mosquito-proof. We have set a deadline of April 30 for them to make the areas mosquito-proof. Statistics indicate that there is a direct correlation between the seven high-risk wards and the presence of huge tracts of land and buildings owned by public sector undertakings. From May 1 to 15, the BMC will check the extent to which these agencies have mosquito-proofed their lands,” said Dr Ambe.
Civic hospitals are working round the clock to arrange for extra beds for malaria patients.
“We are working round the clock to accommodate more than 400 extra beds for patients of malaria and other rain-related ailments. We will have malaria OPDs in the monsoon,” said an official from KEM hospital. The fourth floor of the hospital’s multi-storey building will accommodate new beds for patients of malaria and other monsoon-related diseases. There will be 150 beds in KEM, 100 in Nair hospital and 40 in Sion hospital.
The BMC will start an intensive training regime for private medical practitioners. The training will start from April 30 and will cover all the PMPs. “As 50% of the people go to private practitioners, we are going to train them in effective control of malaria this year,” said Dr Ambe.
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