Tripura govt plea to centre on malaria outbreak

Tripura government has urged the union health ministry to dispatch second generation medicine to combat the outbreak of malaria which claimed 55 lives in last 25 days, a minister said today.
"I have sent an urgent message to the union health minister Harsh Vardhan for dispatching the second generation drugs to combat the disease which claimed 55 lives", state health minister Badal Chowdhury told reporters here.
Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an independent international medical organization has sent a three-member team on Wednesday along with medicines.
The MSF has also assured to send more medicines to control the disease, Chowdhury told reporters.

About one lakh people, mostly tribals living in the remote areas are suffering from fever of which about seventeen thousand people's blood were found to be malaria positive, he added.
Five districts -- Dhalai, Gomti, Khowai, North Tripura and South Tripura were badly affected by malaria.
An expert team from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) led by its special director Awadesh Kumar had extensively visited the disease prone areas and collected samples of patients which would soon submit its report to the central government as well as the state government.