PESHAWAR, May 23: The World Health Organization has urged health professionals to adopt concrete measures for prompt diagnosis and treatment of malaria. WHO representative Qutabuddin Kakar said at a workshop at the Provincial Health Services Academy on Monday that the disease was spreading in alarming proportions because of ineffectiveness of anti-malarial drugs and low immunity of people.

The workshop was organized by the WHO and the health department to educate doctors and paramedics of Kurram and Khyber Agencies and Malakand and Lakki Marwat districts on an early warning system regarding malaria in local outlets.

Mr Kakar said only preventive measures and an early warning system that could warn the authorities about the magnitude of the disease could stop its spread.

He urged health workers to maintain a register of malaria patients on a daily basis and immediately inform the respective agency surgeons and executive district officers, health, about rise in the number of cases.

Malaria Control Programme Deputy Director Dr Khalid Khan said people should be asked to use mosquito nets. He said the disease was more prevalent in the NWFP than other provinces.

He said drugs were becoming ineffective against the disease and it was incumbent upon the health professionals to raise the level of awareness regarding preventive measures against it.

He said malaria caused about 2,000 deaths in the NWFP annually, especially in some southern and northern districts. The breeding season of mosquitoes was in July and August, he said.

Dr Khan said 10 of the 24 districts in the province had been declared high-risk for the disease — Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Karak, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Malakand, Swabi and Mardan.

He said people should be educated to fumigate stagnant water pools and heaps of garbage to stop the breeding of mosquitoes.

He said kerosene should be sprayed on the heaps of garbage and pools of stagnant water.

He said strategies would be adopted to diagnose malaria patients early and provide them prompt treatment.

Any patient coming to health facilities in the high-risk districts would be tested for malarial parasite in 24 hours and given a dose of chloroquine, he said.