Bareilly: Health department’s bid to find out whether monkeys are the source of the high incidence of malaria in Bareilly division has so far failed to take off as it is yet to get a no-objection certificate from the forest department collect blood samples of simians. The health department had proposed to take blood samples of monkeys in Aonla sub-division, which is worst-affected.The department wants to find out if plasmodium knowlesi, which is a malaria parasite in monkeys found in Southeast Asia, is the cause of the high incidence of malaria in the region.According to Deepak Kumar, entomologist, there is a possibility that monkeys were hosts of parasites from female anopheles mosquitoes. “No study on monkey malaria has been conducted in this region and this research can turn out to be important.”Dr Pramila Gaur, additional director (health), Bareilly division, on September 29 had asked scientists at Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) to conduct a research on monkey malaria. The IVRI had agreed to do it but it has been more than a month since then. “We had sent a reminder to the forest department and will do so again. We want a study to be conducted to eliminate the possibility that monkeys might be the source of malaria among humans. The study will be helpful in dealing with malaria cases in future,” said Dr Gaur.When contacted, Bharat Lal, divisional forest officer, said, “The approval for catching monkeys to take their blood samples will be given by principal chief conservator of forest.”Bareilly division has reported more than 40,000 malaria cases this year. Of these, the highest number of cases were detected in Bareilly district, with nearly 33,000 patients. According to officials, around 80% of cases in Bareilly came to light only from Aonla sub-division.According to World Health Organization, humans can be infected with monkey malaria parasite while staying in rainforests or their fringe areas in Southeast Asia, within the range of natural monkey hosts and mosquito vector of this infection. The parasite has a life-cycle of 24 hours and can give rise to daily fever spikes occurring 9–12 days after contracting the infection.IVRI director RK Singh had earlier told TOI, “If the forest department catches monkeys, our scientists will take blood samples from the animals. We can declare the results of the tests on the samples on the same day.”Dr Dinesh Chandra, head of division of parasitology at IVRI, had earlier said, “A team of researchers had found monkey malaria in humans on Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are low chances that the malaria parasite would be present in monkeys in Bareilly but we will conduct research in the matter. We have taken the opinion of retired doctor YD Sharma who was part of the team which found plasmodium knowlesi among tribal populations in Andamans.”

Stay updated with all the Bareilly Lates News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.