Rise in the cases of Malaria in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi continues to be a matter of concern for the State Government.
The two districts together have reported more than 9,800 cases of Malaria in 2014, which is more than 50 per cent of the total cases of Malaria in the State that has recorded a total of 12,141 cases.
At an inter-departmental coordination meeting of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts regarding Malaria, held at the office of the Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner here on Thursday, Joint Director (Malaria and Filaria) B.G. Prakash, said as many as 8,240 cases of Malaria have been reported in Dakshina Kannada while 1,639 cases have been reported from Udupi.
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Of the 8,240 cases, 7,313 cases of Malaria are from Mangaluru City Corporation area. Another reason for the high number of cases is also because of better reporting mechanism.
Dr. Prakash said that the area of concern in the two districts has been the increase in the number of cases of Plasmodium Falciparum (PF) Malaria, which has high incidence of morbidity. The number of PF malaria cases that was 52 in January 2014, spiked to 140 in July. The number of PF Malaria cases came down to 30 in December 2014. Of the 8,240 cases, there were 7,521 Plamodium Vivax Malaria cases and 719 cases of PF Malaria cases in 2014. There has been a 45 per cent increase in the number of PF Malaria cases in the Dakshina Kannada, which is a cause of concern.