A sudden surge in the number of malarial infections on a tea estate in Jalpaiguri has prompted the district health administration to send health teams to the garden and also pass an alert that residents dwelling in other parts of the district should refrain from visiting the tea estate until the situation comes under control.

Sources said in the past one month, over 60 persons have been detected with malaria in Bamandanga-Tondu, a tea garden in Nagrakata block of the district.

“In this year, 92 cases of malaria have been reported from the tea gardens. However, 72 cases were detected in the past one month. Teams have been sent to curb the infection. We are also distributing mosquito nets in association with the block administration,” said Irfan Mollah Hossain, the block medical officer of health (BMOH) of Nagrakata.

According to him, some cases of malarial infection have been found in certain other areas of the district.

“As we checked with the patients, it was found that they had been to the tea garden in recent days. That is why we have issued an alert and want people not to visit the garden unless there is an emergency, so that the infection can be checked,” he added.

In the Dooars tea belt, malarial infection was acute around 15-20 years back and people used to lose their lives. In recent years, however, dengue cases are reported from the tea belt instead of malaria.

“In these days, it is rare to have so many cases of malaria in a single location. Our employees and health workers have been asked to check out the water bodies and take necessary measures like spraying MLO (mosquito larvicide oil) and other disinfectants to control the situation,” said a senior health official of the district.

On Friday, a health team reached the garden. “There are fever patients in most of the households and a section of them have tested positive for malaria. We collected blood samples and there is an anticipation that the count might go up once the tests are over,” added the official.