AHMEDABAD: Migrant workers at construction sites would be monitored closely following the drive against rising malaria cases in the city. The health department of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC) would be intensifying surveillance on construction sites and screen the workers - especially those from Dahod, Panchmahal and the states of Madhya Pradesh and Orissa-- for the malarial pathogen called plasmodium vivax. 

Though the construction workers are generally screened for possible malaria cases, such screenings would be intensified to at least once a week at construction sites. Till now the AMC has screened more than 1,800 workers in Ahmedabad and have identified 22 positive cases. 

In the last 23 days, the AMC has recorded more than 270 malaria patients in the city. 

"Tribal people from Dahod and Panchmahal are dormant carriers of the pathogen, and it is necessary that they take a complete course of medicine to effectively curb this disease from spreading into neighboring areas or settlements. Mosquitoes generally may bite an infected human, and then transfer pathogen into healthy individuals," says a senior AMC health official. In the last few days, there has been a rise in malaria cases in the tribal districts of Dahod and Panchmahal. Dahod district alone reported 658 malaria cases. 

The AMC has already collected Rs 2.90 lakh in fines till early this month from errant construction sites that had waste water collecting at their site that were breeding mosquitoes. 

"We are scanning for asymptomatic cases in these workers that are carriers of the malaria pathogen and can transmit the disease. Blood smears would be sent every week to our lab from these construction sites to provide adequate treatment if any cases are detected,” added the health department official.