Three persons have died in the last 10 days of malignant malaria at Santalpara in Bahin gram panchayat, North Dinajpur district. The disease has affected 20 others. Some of the affected are undergoing treatment at Raiganj district hospital.
The deceased were identified as Mohan Hansda (45), Jagu Hansda (38) and Pramila Das (40). All three died in Raiganj hospital. Six of the affected are undergoing treatment in Raiganj district hospital. However seven-year-old Ajit Hansda is in a critical condition. The district health department officials suspect that the Hansda brothers, who had been to Dumka in Jharkhand recently to attend a marriage ceremony returned to North Dinajpur affected by malaria. According to the chief medical officer of health, North Dinajpur district, Dr S S Shahoo, pathology reports indicate that the deceased were affected by malignant malaria.
“A health team under the guidance of the block medical officer of health, Raiganj Dr Gautam Mandal visited the affected village and collected blood samples of the locals. “To prevent it from further spreading, bleaching powder is being sprinkled all over the village and the weeds are being uprooted. The villagers have been instructed to use mosquito nets,” he added.
Panic has gripped Raiganj following reports of the malarial deaths. The town is still apprehensive about the unknown disease that killed 17 children in June this year in the villages of Karandighi block in the district.
Although several teams of medical experts including those from the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata, National Institute of Virology Department in Pune and National Institute of Communicable Diseases in New Delhi visited the region after the outbreak of the fever, it still remains undetected.