A university in Germany in association with the Government Wenlock Hospital and the Karnataka Institute for DNA Research, Dharwad, will undertake a research on the prevalence of malaria in the city.
In 2014, as many as 17 persons, who had contracted malaria, died in the Government Wenlock Hospital. Some of them had been inflicted with the plasmodium vivax parasite. “It is a benign stream of malaria. It is a concern to see death due to plasmodium vivax (less severe malaria),” said a health official.
Health and Family Welfare Minister U.T. Khader told reporters here on Tuesday that a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed between the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the Charite University, Berlin, the Government Wenlock Hospital, the Kasturba Medical College and the Karnataka Institute for DNA Research, Dharwad, for the research, which will be for five months.
Frank P. Mockenhaupt, the Deputy Director of Research Group (Malaria and Infectious Diseases Epidermology) of the Charite University, said the study will look at the risk factors for prevalence of malaria in the region.
It will also examine if genetic factors make people susceptible to the disease. He said they will also study whether the parasite develops any resistance to the drugs. The target group for the study is the 2,500 patients in the Wenlock Hospital.
: Shrinivas Kakkilaya, a physician who has been fighting for control of malaria, while welcoming the research, said it should not stop the MCC from taking measures to prevent breeding of mosquitoes.
Dr. Kakkilaya, who is in the consultative committee of the MCC for Malaria Control, said not much progress has been made in vector control since submission of recommendations by the committee.
“What needs to be done is known. No interest is being shown for vector control,” he said. Dr. Kakkilaya regretted that the State Government was not accepting all deaths of patients found positive for malaria as due to Malaria.
Of the 65 deaths of patients treated for Malaria at the Wenlock in 2014, the Department of Malaria and Filaria has only accepted only 12 deaths as due to Malaria.
“You have to set this system right before calling an University to study,” Mr. Kakkilaya said.
