Agartala, June 14 (TIWN): One more tribal villager died of malaria at a remote village of Gadacherra subdivision taking the total death toll to 21 due to outbreak of malaria in Dhalai district, official sources confirmed here today.

Worried by the situation, Health and Family Welfare Minister Badal Chowdhury today visited Chailengtha and Chawmanu PHCs to take stock of the situation aftermath of malaria outbreak.

Today, one more malaria patient died at Gandacherra subdvisional hospital while 63 malaria patents were admitted in the hospital last night, said Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr. Sanjoy Biswas over telephone from Ambassa.

As of now, 375 malaria patients are getting treatment at Gandacherra subdivisional hospital and the situation has been improving with every passing day. “Four medical teams have been pressed into service to tackle the situation in remote villages of Gandacherra subdivision. As part of precautionary measures, some patients have been lifted to hospital by the help of local administration”, he said.

Giving the details on the intensify of the malaria outbreak, Dr. Biswas said of the total seven indoor patients at Manikpur PHC, five patients are down with malaria while as many as 23 malaria patients of the total 72 admitted patients at Chailengtha hospital are suffer from malaria. At Chawmanu PHC, a total of 32 patients are admitted while only 8 patients are down with malaria.

Dr. Biswas said the total malaria death toll swelled to 21 in two subdivisions- Gandacherra and Longtharai Valley. A total of 13 death cases were reported from Gandacherra and Ganganagar while nine villagers died of malaria in Longtharai Valley subdivision.

Following instruction from the Minister, the department is all set to take action against 42 ICDS workers, MPW and ASHAs engaged in the malaria ravaged tribal hamlets in two subdivisions.