AGARTALA, August 3 (TIWN): Healthcare in the interior villages of the state has a gap from the required infrastructure, Tripura Health Minister Badal Choudhury admitted. Speaking to reporters here, the minister said that every district hospital now operates a blood bank and the state is now expecting to operationalized super-specialty health services at the apex healthcare institution – Gobinda Ballabh Pant Hospital in Agartala. He, however, said that the rural healthcare is lacking in many respects. “We will have to get more infrastructure”, the minister said. Asked about the current situation of malaria outbreak in the state, Health Minister Choudhury said that the Department of Health and Family Welfare was largely successful in containing the disease from further escalation.

“We had 76 persons killed in the malaria outbreak in the past two months. There are no reports of death in the past one week or more. The number of freshly infected persons have also come down largely”, the minister said.

He said that hospitals and other healthcare institutions like Primary Health Centres (PHC), Community Health Centers (CHC) and health sub-centers are now in a much better shape with sufficient stocks of anti-malaria drugs. Door-to-door campaigning is continuing in full fledge with active participation of the ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers and health department personnel.

The minister denied any possibility of largescale Japanese Encephalitis or dengue outbreak and said that four persons were confirmed to have contacted Japanese Encephalitis till date. Three among them were treated, cured and sent back home within July. The lone Japanese Encephalitis patient is currently under treatment at GB Hospital. “We don’t have any confirmed report of dengue anywhere in the state”, Choudhury said.

National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme Joint Director Dr. VK Raina met health secretary M Nagaraju before his departure from the state on August 01. Official sources said that the central Japanese Encephalitis expert collected samples from his visits at Gandacherra, Raishyabari and Belonia for tests scheduled to be conducted later in New Delhi.

Dr. Raina suggested the health secretary to boost rural healthcare to prevent further vector borne disease outbreaks in future, the source said.