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ShareMumbai: The rains have only just started, but monsoon diseases may already have gripped the city with 6,514 cases being tested for malaria in the last four days, of which 354 were positive. Forty people suffering from the disease were admitted to civic hospitals on Saturday alone. City doctors anticipate that as it starts pouring heavily, cases of malaria will rise.
In June, five people lost their lives to malaria, all of them succumbing to the virulent P falciparum strain, while more than 3,000 people were affected by the sting. "The malaria menace is on the higher side this year," said Dr Kishor Harugoli, assistant health officer, BMC.
"We have been advocating from the beginning that all private practitioners should treat every fever case as malaria and send their blood samples for testing," added Harugoli. Construction sites are where mosquito breeding is rampant.
Other forms of fever are also on the rise. On Saturday, fever claimed two lives -- a 35-year-old woman from Jogeshwari succumbed at KEM Hospital and a 50-year-old man at Nair Hospital. In the last four days alone, 500 cases of fever have been reported.
"About 800 people have been admitted to various civic hospitals mostly due to fever," said Dr Daksha Shah, head, epidemiological cell, BMC.
Dengue claimed a 42-year-old Vikhroli resident on Saturday, and two cases of leptospirosis were reported from Nair Hospital and a private hospital. "Rains have just begun, but we have been witnessing a steady flow of patients with symptoms of malaria, fever and gastroenteritis," said Dr Hemant Thacker, consultant physician, Breach Candy and Jaslok Hospital. "Cases of gastroenteritis can only be expected to go up, because with water-logging, the chances of water contamination also increase," he said.
