MANGALORE Sept 8: Health officials identified 830 cases of malaria infection within the city corporation limits in last month. In addition, 71 cases of affliction have been reported from rural areas. This is said to be the highest number of cases recorded in the district this year.District health officer H. Jagannath said that the rural-urban divide was a historical feature of the district.
“The urban centres are always ahead of rural areas in the prevalence of the disease because there are more sources for mosquito breeding in the city. The female Anopheles mosquito thrives on filthy conditions,” he said.
He said that 7,976 blood samples were collected from within the corporation limits, compared to over 18,000 collected in the rural areas. “It cannot be concluded that the cases reported from rural areas are less because our diagnostic machinery is lacking,” he said, in response to a query.
A majority of the malaria cases identified in the city had been caused by the less deadly parasite Plasmodium viviax (PV).
