Malaria epidemic may hit Goa's tourism industry

Goa, whose tourism industry has already been affected by the state's poor infrastructure, is reeling under a malaria epidemic.

As many as 15,000 malaria cases were officially recorded in the last nine months while the death toll has crossed 45. The toll in September alone was 15, sending grave signals far and wide. This, sources fear, may affect the state's tourism industry.

Though it was initially claimed that the epidemic was confined to the migrant construction labour, reports now indicate that more than half the victims this year are locals. With cases of plasmodium falciparum, a kind of cerebral malaria, being reported, panic seems to have gripped the state.

Despite the grave situation, the administration failed to initiate prompt corrective measures, allowing the ''killer mosquito'' to monopolise the construction sites along the coastal belt.

The epidemic, which first broke out in Panaji in 1986 when 230 cases were reported, claimed 10 lives last year even as the number of cases shot up to 11,000. ''The volcano has burst in one year. What we are doing now is just a salvage operation,'' said Dr Jairam Porob who is in charge of the National Malaria Eradication Programme Centre.

Though the authorities had identified construction sites as the parasite's breeding places, no concrete measures could be taken against the strong builders's lobby, despite Deputy Chief Minister Dr Wilfred De Souza's brave words.

That the administration lacks the political will to book the builders is confirmed by the fact that no fines have been slapped on the construction industry.

Even the directorate of health services seems reluctant in following the example set by the Malaria Research Centre. Led by Dr Ashwini Kumar, the centre brought down the number of cases from 1,500 in 1994 to 268 in 1995 in the coastal belt of Candolim-Calangute. Last year, after the centre was wound up, however, the number of cases shot up to 3,500.

''Our strategy was simple. Instead of going in for risky chemicals, we followed environment friendly methods like larvivorous fish and spraying of bacillus thuringiensis at the mosquito breeding habitats,'' said Dr Kumar.