The current prevalence of malaria will be measured before the start of the project, which will continue for at least a year.
The preventive and social medicine (PSM) department at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Hospital (LTMH), in collaboration with the Centre for Study of Social Change (CSSC), has developed a model to control the spread of malaria. Inspired by an old practice, the model will be tested in Bharat Nagar in Bandra (East) next month.
The attempt will be to administer chloroquine to a person suffering from fever, without waiting for him to be diagnosed with malaria. “It is a safe drug and can be taken even if the person doesn’t have malaria,” said RM Chaturvedi, head of the PSM department at LTMH. “In case the person who has fever is in fact suffering from malaria, chloroquine will kill the parasite in the first stage of development and ensure the infection doesn’t spread to other people.”
The department found that the main problem in controlling the spread of malaria is that a patient is given chloroquine after he is diagnosed with the disease. Usually, about six days pass between the actual infection and the detection of the disease. This time period is enough for mosquitoes to carry the disease from the infected person to healthy people.
As per the model, the BMC will train the CSSC’s community workers. “As soon as they encounter a patient who has high fever, they should inform the doctors, attached to the CSSC, who can administer them chloroquine,” said Chaturvedi.
“This programme will help us utilise the existing infrastructure which is currently underutilised,” said Dr Sanjay Ojha, medical co-ordinator with the CSSC. If the blood reports test positive for malaria, the BMC workers can spray insecticide in the locality and ensure that the malaria-carrying mosquitoes are killed at the breeding sites.
The current prevalence of malaria will be measured before the start of the project, which will continue for at least a year.
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