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THE FORESTS OF FEAR 

An instruction manual for the tourists to Indian forests to prevent suffering & death from malaria. Specially prepared on request for tourists’ benefit by

Professor Amitabha Nandy,
Head, Dept. of Protozoology, & In-charge, Malaria Clinic,
Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and Technical Advisor to CENTROMAP
&
Dr. (Mrs.) Manjulika Addy,
Senior Research Officer,
Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine

Published by
Centre for Tropical Medicine & Parasitology
(CENTROMAP)
8A, Peary Mohan Roy Road
Calcutta - 700 027

E-mail : centromap@yahoo.com
           centromap@vsnl.net

ISBN 81-901498-0-6

* The amount for this booklet collected from you is considered a kind and generous donation towards development of facilities for research and health care against killer tropical diseases. The organization while gratefully acknowledges your help also requests you to disseminate the knowledge you gathered out of this booklet to others.

Your contribution Rs. 200 .00 / US $ 5.00*

First published : 2002. Printed in India

Summary :

Man has always been driven towards exploring nature within the globe or in the outward universe. Forests by their own diversity of wealth, beauty, life and thrill has been attracting all age groups since man came to existence. Forests are considered as a life support system for millions of man. On the other hand, by supporting various forms of life including those of germs of human diseases and their carriers, becomes instrumental for human diseases and death. Malaria is one such life threatening diseases taking hundreds and thousands of human lives, particularly that acquired from the forest. In the recent past besides involving more and more unconventional areas in addition, forest acquired malaria particularly among the tourists has gained much significance because of falciparum, the killer malaria, becoming resistant to majority of the drugs, and showing increased lethality. This has lead to enormous loss of life and a serious set back to tourism resulting in loss of revenue to the Government. Concerned about this the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Parasitology in short CENTROMAP is trying to help people and tourists not to suffer and die of forest malaria and to help the Government develop its “tourism without the fear of malaria”. It may kindly be noted that all the information and advises given in this booklet are results of basic research by the CENTROMAP. Thus the two main objectives of this book is to develop a feeling among the tourists that visit to forest with proper protection does not lead to forest malaria and that among the forest authority to declare the malaria infested forests as a zone of no fear, without loosing tourists flow and to impose rules of carrying to the forest an anti-malaria kit which is now available from the CENTROMAP.

Malaria is a complete science by itself and therefore vast. This book is a humble attempt in addressing issues related to the threat of malaria for the tourists to the forests as well as to malaria endemic areas. It deals only with those aspects of the disease which have direct relevance to the tourists’ self defense against forest acquired malaria. The book is presented in a question and answer mode and is based on very common questions often asked by lay men as well as technical persons about malaria before visiting an endemic country or place. However, in a very simplified way the actual science involved in the understanding and practice of malaria prevention has been presented justifying every bits of advises. The authors, as malaria preventive measures have relied almost exclusively on prevention of man-mosquito contact and seriously have discouraged use of any preventive drugs. The entire book has been divided in to three sections,

1. Section-I: This particular section while answers several common questions General aspect of malaria, giving some details of the parasite, the disease’s clinical types ; danger in delaying the treatment; some misconceptions regarding its transmission, diagnosis, reasons of death, and more importantly the nature of malaria that exists in the forests. This section explained with reasons in a chart, the limitations of any preventive medication.

2. Section-II: Discusses the malaria preventive measures to be taken by the domestic tourists. Based on the personal behavior of the tourists while on tour, particularly on leisure trips, the book has advised appropriate measures to prevent the tourists to get exposed to mosquito bites. This section also has advised necessary measures to be taken in the event of exposure to infected mosquito bites and subsequent development of malaria.

3. Section-III: It has been devoted entirely on suggestions and advises to the International travelers coming to the endemic areas. Based on the place of visit and the duration of stay in respective areas, in a nicely designed algorithm the tourists have been given several options of malaria preventive measures to be chosen from. It also describes how and which way one may seek appropriate medical assistance in the event of exposure and subsequent fever, suspected to be due to malaria.