Imphal, Sept. 5: With the nearest health centre in a neighbouring state, an imminent malaria epidemic hardly came as a surprise for a medical team that conducted a rare health camp in the remote Vangai range of Churachandpur district recently.

To describe the Vangai range as remote is an understatement.

With no land transportation available, the most convenient way to reach there is through the waterway from Phularton in Assam’s Cachar district — the route used by the medical team.

The group, comprising doctors from the medical directorate and officials of the malaria wing, detected at least 295 suspected malaria cases among 1,000 tribal villagers screened during the weeklong healthcare camp.

“We organised health camps at four different villages, including one at the sub-divisional headquarters of Tipaimukh. The malaria virus is spreading at an alarming rate, with little medical facilities available in these areas,” said Konjengbam Chinglenkhomba, president of Democratic Students Alliance, Manipur.

Chinglenkhomba told newspersons today that soon after they set up camp at the Vangai range, villagers informed the medical team that seven persons had died of malaria last year at Thingpuikuol — another remote village.

“The primary health sub-centre at the hill range are all defunct. The villagers have to go to neighbouring Cachar district in Assam for medical treatment,” a resident told the medical team. Patients often die on their way to Cachar hospital, he added.

The medical group also found that owing to consumption of contaminated water, the average life span of the villagers at the hill range was only 50 years.

The team will soon submit a report to the health department, apprising it of the situation at the hill range.