| Malaria grips residents of Sowcarpet. |
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Even as the city corporation pumps in crores of rupees for vector control every year, the health officials of the civic body in North Chennai are in a fix over six congested streets in Sowcarpet where 30 cases of malaria are reported through the year. While several strategies like fumigation, spraying of larvicide and cleaning of overhead tanks have brought respite to residents in other localities, the disease goes unchecked in these areas, where nearly 1,600 people live, says a senior corporation official. “Just as soon as we treat a patient with malaria, another person contracts it, maintaining the number of infected cases roughly around 30. We have appointed a special officer to keep track of malarial cases and investigate each patient who has contracted it,” the official explains. Take the case of Ms Jyothiammal (42), a full-time maid working in an apartment complex in crowded Kasi Chetty Street, who tested positive for malaria a few weeks ago. The small table fan in her one-room house in the basement of the complex is hardly a match to the swarm of mosquitoes that invades the apartment at night. “We have mosquito trouble all through the year, even in summer. We cannot manage even for a single night without coils and the air-conditioner,” says Ms Payal N, an interior design student in whose house Ms Jyothiammal works. “We tell people that malaria-causing mosquitoes breed only in fresh water and that they should keep their overhead tanks closed all the time and regularly clean drums that store water. But we find that residents do not heed our advice,” says another official in corporation zone two office, under whose jurisdiction the streets fall. Even small openings on the sides of tanks help larvae breed, says the official, pointing out that it is often the domestic help who sleeps in the open and fall victim to the disease. “Other than protecting ourselves with mosquito mats or coils, we do not have the time to lodge a complaint with the corporation officials,” says Parun Shukla, manager of a fancy store on Narayana Mudali Street, where two workers suffering from malaria have not turned up for work for two weeks now. M. Stephen. Reporter. Anytime chennai news team. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           Related Articles
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