Artemisinin helped check malaria: ITDA

The officials of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Utnoor claimed that they have controlled the malaria positive cases and its related deaths using ‘Artemisinin’ medicine (ACT combipack) this year in the Adilabad district of Telangana.

China’s scientist Tu Youyou got Noble prize in medicine category for developing the medicine Artemisinin for the year 2015.

Artemisinin has been proved to be doing well medicine in controlling malaria across the world and Tu Youyou has developed the medicine from the traditional Chinese medicine.

Project officer of ITDA, Utnoor R.V Karnan said they have used the Artemisinin medicine to control the malaria cases in the Agency areas and treated 5,985 malaria positive cases in this year in the district and that they have procured nearly 22,000 ACT kits to treat patients.

He said many lives have been saved by administering ACT medicine in the Agency in the district this season. However, 18 people succumbed to malaria this year.

Karnan said the number of deaths were considerably low in ratio of detected positive malaria cases in this year when compared to malaria positive cases and deaths in previous years.

According to official sources, the ITDA, Utnoor has procured only 7,000 ACT kits till 2014 from 2008 from the directorate of medical and health but nearly 22,000 ACT kits were procured from various sources in 2015 to control the malaria cases with special efforts made by project officer of ITDA.

However, according to unofficial sources the actual number of malaria positive cases and deaths is much more than the official figures this year like in the past.

Diseases : Adivasi kids turn orphans

Kudimetha Revati   

More than 600 Adivasi children have been orphaned with their parents having succumbed to seasonal diseases in the Agency areas in the Adilabad district of Telangana in the last 18 years.

Outbreak of viral fever, diarrhea, dengue and malaria fevers besides anemia have caused deaths of many Adivasis.

In many cases, all the family members or majority of them fallen got afflicted by seasonal diseases in the Agency areas.  

Risk from seasonal diseases is aggravated owing to less immunity in Adivasi people due to lack of nutritious food, polluted drinking water, poor sanitation and untimely medical treatment.

Most Adivasi orphaned children are in the age group of 4 years to 15 years. Not just parents, many children bellow 5 years have also succumbed to seasonal diseases.

Kudimetha Revati,8, lost her parents Shakunthala and Nagorao to seasonal diseases two years ago. 

Her grandfather Kudimetha Bojju now looks after her, her brother Vinayak and sister Anasurya in Pullala village in Sirpur( U) mandal. Revati and Vinayak have been suffering from malaria for the last four days.

One can find many orphans like Revati, Vinayak and Nagorao in the Adivasis gudems in the district, growing on their own without any governments support and care.

Revati’s aged grandfather Kudimetha Bojju, looking after his grandchildren, is worried about their future as he may not live long. 

He hopes the state government steps forward to rescue his grandchildren in the absence of guardians.  On few occasions, government officials and NGOs have intervened and put orphans in hostels meant for them.

Many orphaned Adivasis children were seen roaming in the gudems without work and some of them have ended up as cattle grazers with bleak future.

It is estimated that there were 1,500 orphan children of all categories and nearly 40 percent of them are from Adivasi communities in the district. State co-convenor of Child Rights Forum and district committee member of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) Meerza Yakoob Baig said more than 600 Adivasi children have been orphaned in the Adivasi gudems in the last 18 years.

He observed that child marriages were also resulted in deaths of parents at an early age and added that there were only four child homes for orphaned girls and only two open shelter homes for boys in the district.

Issue of large number of Adivasi orphans came up for discussion during Dr Shantha Sinha, then Chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, visited the Adivasi gudems in the Narnoor mandal in the Adilabad district following the outbreak of seasonal diseases in 2008.   

Minister tells Adivasis to shun superstitions

Health minister checking health of Adivasi child

Health Minister Dr C. Laxma Reddy said Adivasis still believe in superstitions which indirectly affecting their health and causing even causes death.

He appealed to the Adivasis to give up their belief in superstitions and take medical treatment for the good health and protect themselves from the diseases.

Minister asked the members of youth associations, community elders to educate the community people against the superstitions. He said a special ward in RIMS will be reserved for Tribal patients come across the district for treatment. 

Along with Ministers Jogu Ramanna and Allola Indrakran Reddy, health minister Laxma Reddy visited the Adivasi gudems where incidents of viral fevers, malaria positive cases and deaths were reported in Sirpur (U) and Jainoor mandals.

‘Some of the Adivasis not even going to hospital for treatment and instead taking traditional medicines made of herbs, he observed and said it was high time Adivasis change themselves and use modern medical treatment offered by the state government’.

The minister said efforts would be made to give nutritious food to Adivasis suffering from anemia to improve their immunity.  

During his visit, Mr Laxma Reddy admitted that there were cases of fevers but not in large numbers and directed the officials concerned to shift all the Adivasis including children suffering from malaria and viral fevers to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Adilabad.

Some of the Adivasis of  Pullara village in Sirpur (U) complained to the ministers that the doctors ad staff of the PHCs are not giving them treatments citing that they do not come under their jurisdiction and advising them to go another PHCs which were far away from their native villages.

The health minister expressed displeasure over not shifting the villagers suffering from fevers to Adilabad for better treatment and for not attending the patients seriously while stressing upon the sanitation, drinking potable water.       

Mr Laxma Reddy surprised when Asifabad MLA Kova Laxmi explained him some of the traditions practiced with regard to lactating women and just born babies by the Adivasis.

Health minister also inspected government hospitals at Jainoor and Utnoor and promised to upgrade the hospitals as community health center and 100 bedded hospital respectively.   

Tribals told to use nets to keep diseases at bay

Dengu drains out the poor of their savings

Adilabad district in the grip of fevers