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KANPUR DEHAT is in the grip of a scourge -- the falciparum malaria – and it has assumed frightening proportions. It started from one village two weeks ago and spread to 350 others.

So far it has claimed 160 lives. Several thousand others are bed-ridden.
On an average, 15 to 20 people are dying every day with Saturday seeing the biggest toll in a day : 24.

Mosquitos are scary, but the way the district authorities have handled the outbreak is scarier. Most of the villages are without any medical assistance. A must-do in case of malaria spread -- fogging -- hasn’t been done. The district’s health department is somewhat confused on the nature of the disease.

In the beginning it was termed viral fever. Then doctors concluded that it was falciparum malaria. But after two weeks, they rule out both. “We really don’t know what exactly it is, we are waiting for the finding of a team of specialists from New Delhi,” said Dr RC Agarwal, the new chief medical officer of the district.

Specialists from the Infectious Disease and Surveillance Programme, New Delhi collected blood samples of a few patients recently. They will make its findings known later.

The fear of unknown has resulted in mass exodus of villagers to safer locations. Pulandar and Dhar villages, under Malasa block, are the worst affected. About  1,000 people in these two villages are battling the disease. Dhar has had the maximum number of casualties. The village has lost about 30 persons but has been visited by a doctor just once. That was 15 days ago.

“Everyone here is waiting for doctors to come and examine people, they aren’t coming and we are counting our dead,” said Rajesh (38) of Pulandar village.
Kuldeep Singh and Ram Avtaar of Dhar break down and scream: “A lot of people can still be saved, we need doctors”.

This morning the mystery fever claimed Tilak Singh (35) and his nephew Vikas Singh (11). Dhar village still remains a perfect picture of neglect and apathy.
Heaps of garbage continue to be littered all over the village. Houses are surrounded by stinking filth and roads are waterlogged. The secondary school of the village has been shut for an indefinite period. Children had to wade through knee-deep water to reach the school.  No wonder, the village is devoid of clean water.

Santosh Prajapati, eight members of whose family are afflicted by the disease, hired a tractor to shift them to a hospital in Kanpur city. “I have borrowed money from my relatives… if they remain here they will die,” he said.

The gram panchayats didn’t fail only in Dhar or Pulandar, but everywhere. At nearby Narainpurwa, caring two hoots for the health of villagers, the gram pradhan got industrial waste to cover the sludge.

“The gram panchayats failed to work the way they were expected to,” admits district magistrate R S Sahu. So he has issued a stringent warning to all village headmen. A sum of Rs 10,000 was also released for all gram panchayats today for carrying out proper disposal of waste and sprinkling of disinfectants, which hasn’t been done yet. An additional team of 41 doctors and 27 water tanks have been earmarked for the dehat. But where? ask angry villagers.  pawandixit@gmail.com