Mosquito nets to be coated with insecticides in two villages each in 18 sensitive UP districts

BAREILLY: Striving to control vector-borne diseases in 18 sensitive districts of Uttar Pradesh, chief medical officers in these districts will select two most sensitive villages for converting normal mosquito nets of villagers into insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs). Mosquitoes die after they sit on ITNs.

Health department workers will collect normal mosquito nets from villagers and treat it with medicine/chemicals to convert it into ITNs.

According to officials, 18 districts where ITN conversions will be done are Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Rampur, Aligarh, Farukkhabad, Etah, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Bhadohi, Sitapur, Hardoi, Kanpur Dehat, Auraiya and Gautambudh Nagar. Additional director, malaria and vector-borne diseases, had on Tuesday issued letters to the CMOs of these districts in this connection.

Bareilly and Badaun had reported outbreak of malaria last year. According to data available with the health department, 2,418 cases of plasmodium vivax (PV) and 244 cases of “deadly” plasmodium falciparum (PF) malaria were detected between January and May last year in Bareilly district. Similarly, in the corresponding period, Badaun had reported 941 cases of PV and 17 cases of PF.

PF malaria, which is considered as rare in the region, could be fatal if treatment is delayed beyond 24 hours after the onset of clinical symptoms, said officials. However, PV malaria is one of the common variants and is usually reported in the region.

District malaria officers, deputy malaria officers and malaria inspectors of the all 18 districts were recently given training on ITNs.

D R Singh, Bareilly district malaria officer, said, “In Bareilly district, we will choose two villages each from Majhgavan and Bhamora blocks. The sensitive villages will be selected considering the annual parasitic incidence. In the selected villages, we will conduct an awareness drive about ITNs among villagers with the help of Asha, Anganwadi workers and village heads. Asha workers will conduct a household bed-net survey in the two villages.”

“After collecting data on mosquito nets of each household in the two villages, we will inform higher authorities, who will provide us medicines and equipment for converting nets into ITNs. A camp will also be organised in these villages for ITNs,” said Singh.

After the malaria outbreak last year, officials had demanded seven lakh long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) for distribution among families, a member of which was diagnosed with PF malaria. LLIN nets are coated with insecticides and mosquitos got killed after they sit it. However, officials in Bareilly have recently received nearly 500 LLINs.