Tamei in the death throes of malaria
Ng Liklaileima
IMPHAL, Jul 4 : Inspite of frequent outbreaks of malaria in the remote areas of Tamei sub-division in Tamenglong district, there are no adequate medicines at the Primary Health Centre of the Sub-division. As a result, villagers who can afford are purchasing the medicines from the pharmacists to save themselves from the epidemic while those who cannot have been left to their own fate.
Over and above this, due to absence of microscopic facilities and irregularity of the doctors on duty at the only healthcare centre of the area, malaria patients have to be brought to Imphal for treatment. On the other hand, even if symptomatic signs of malarial infection appears, many of the poor villagers who could not shell out money for treatment are depending on the herbal medicines prepared by the local quacks.
With the onset of rainy season, outbreak of malaria has been an annual phenomenon in the remote villages of Tamei Sub-division like Konphung, Leng- long, Dikurum, Katang, Chaton, Eleng, etc and many people have fallen prey to the disease. Yet the Government has not taken up any concrete measures to prevent death from malaria.
Talking to The Sangai Express, an official of the Primary Health Centre at Tamei disclosed that reports of outbreak of malaria in the remote villages of the sub-division have already started started coming in for this year.
However, from out of the required medicines to be given to the malaria patient like Chloroquine, Primaquine and E-Mal only Chloroquine is available at the centre.
Chloroquine is also a medicine which is not used in modern days as it is fully effective.
There is no guarantee that a patient will be saved by taking this medicine, although its cost is very cheap.
Therefore the villagers who can afford are heading for the pharmacies to purchase the other two medicines even if their cost are relatively very high while those who could not afford are left to fend for themselves.
It is said a full course of Chloroquine medicine cost only Rs 20 while Primaquine and E-Mal costs Rs 85 and Rs 375 respectively.
Even for those who can afford to buy Primaquine and E-Mal, their survival from the disease hangs by a thread, as they cannot take the full course of these medicines due to short supply. These medicines are to be made available to the people free of cost from all the District Hospitals, Primary Health Centres and Sub-Centres. It is also manda- tory on the part of the officials of the District Vector Borne Diseases Control Society to provide medicines for treatment of malaria free of cost if they detected any case of malarial infection during the course of touring the villages. However, it such benefits are nothing but wishful thinking for many people living in these remote villages.
Secretary of Konphung village Kh Lunglinbo informed that atleast one member of in every families in the village are suffering from ailments with related symptoms of malaria they do not go to the Primary Health Centre at Tamei as the doctors on duty are absent most of the time and there is no medicine and prefer to go to Imphal for treatment, if they have the money. Last year 10 persons died from malaria while 5 persons are currently suffering from it in the village.
As many of the families are also poor, they depended on locally available medicinal plants like Nongmankha for treatment, he informed.
Another official of the Tamei Primary Health Centre disclosed that four patients from Lenglong village and five others from Konphung village have come to the centre for treatment this year so far.
Many villagers do not come to the health centre for treatment on account of deplorable condition of the road and transportation in the area, the official said, adding that three persons from Lenglong village died from malaria last year.
Interestingly, with the main objective of spreading awareness among the people to control malaria and to collect blood samples from the affected people to find out the extent of malarial outbreak in the State the Anti-Malaria Month is currently being observed under the aegis of Manipur State Vector Borne Disease Control Society in different parts of the State since June 22. But many affected many people living in the remote areas are not getting the required medicines for treatment.
Taking serious note of this stark reality, the chairman of Tamei Headquarters Village Authority Pouken said it is high time for the authorities concerned to wake up to the need of the hour and pay attention to the problem being faced by the people living in the remote area even for treatment of such common disease like malaria.

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