Friday, January 18, 2013

Malaria case management pilot programme inaugurated



BHUBANESWAR: An operational research project called Comprehensive Case Management (CCM) - Pilot Programme for effective malaria control was launched in the State on Friday by Health and Family Welfare Department secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra.

The project is implemented in partnership with National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Malaria Medicine Venture (MMV), an international foundation dedicated for developing new malaria drugs in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO).

The State National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) under Health and Family Welfare Department is the implementing agency where as NIMR and WHO are technical support agencies. MMV would provide financial support for the research project and the project has been approved by the Health Ministry Steering Committee of the Central Government.

Speaking on the occasion, Mohapatra said that early, effective and complete treatment of all malaria positive cases in the entire population of a block is the objective of the project. “This is because the stages of the parasite which cause fever and the stages which are transmitted from the patient to mosquitoes are killed by different drugs,” said Mohapatra, adding, “With the right drugs at the right time and full follow-up we could cure the patient and prevent further transmission to other persons in the community.”

Mohapatra said the present research project would be implemented in three districts- Angul, Dhenkanal and Balangir having high, moderate and low malaria burden respectively. In each district, two blocks have been selected which are having similar geo-ecotypes and malaria transmission features.

This type of operational research project is being implemented for the first time in India and South-East Asian countries as the Programme division is directly involved in high quality research to generate evidence.

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