Chemically treated mosquito nets to fight Malaria in Manipur
Chemically treated mosquito nets popularly known as Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs), promoted by WHO to counter malaria has helped the Manipur government to fight the tropical disease in the state, officials said on Saturday. Manipur government has set a target to achieve "zero malaria status" in 2021, nine-years ahead of the national target of eliminating the tropical disease by 2030, the officials said.
"LLINs which are given free of cost by the Geneva-based Global Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM)" is one of the most essential "malaria elimination programme", State Malaria Officer, Thangpa Serto told PTI.
He said these "insecticide incorporated nets" last for at least three to five years and are distributed by GFATM as per the requirements. An official said 3,84,348 LLINs were distributed in 2016 and 5,64,572 will be distributed by 2020."
Serto said the malaria elimination campaign pursued by the state malaria office includes intensive ongoing "awareness campaign" wherein locals are informed that "early diagnosis is best away to safeguard from the vector-borne disease."
Accordingly, people are consistently informed to check blood samples if they develop fever for which "testing kits" are made available at every village. This will enable to determine whether the fever is caused by malarial parasites or not, thereby giving an opportunity to treat at the earliest.
Etymologist Sujalata Ngangom said "Rapid Diagnostic Test" is vital to eliminate malaria. She said that the state malaria office has hatchery where fishes such as Gambusia and Guppy, which feeds on mosquitoes larvae are provided free of cost to villagers to naturally destroy mosquitoes larvae in stagnant water bodies.
Recently, Governor Najma Heptulla had said that Manipur will become the first state not only in the Northeastern region but also the entire nation to get the zero-malaria status.
This will happen by 2021, nine years ahead of the national target to eliminate the disease by 2030, she had claimed.
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