World Malaria Report 2020: India continues to make impressive gains in reduction of Malaria
Dec 02, 2020
Geneva [Switzerland], December 2 : India continues to make impressive gains in the reduction of Malaria as per the World Malaria Report 2020 released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday.
According to the official statement, India is the only high endemic country which has reported a decline of 17.6 per cent in 2019 over 2018.
The Annual Parasitic Incidence (API) reduced by 27.6 per cent in 2018 compared to 2017 and by 18.4 per cent in 2019 as compared to 2018. India has sustained API less than one since the year 2012, as per the WHO's malaria report 2020.
The report estimate that India contributed to the largest drop in cases region-wide, from approximately 20 million to about 6 million, while the percentage drop in malaria cases was 71.8 per cent and deaths was 73.9 per cent between 2000 to 2019.
The report has complimented India saying, it has achieved a reduction of 83.34 per cent in malaria morbidity and 92 per cent in malaria mortality between the year 2000 (20,31,790 cases, 932 deaths) and 2019 (3,38,494 cases, 77 deaths).
The total number of malaria cases reported in 2020, till October, (1,57,284) has further decreased by 45.02 percent as compared to the corresponding period of 2019 (2,86,091).
Malaria Elimination efforts were initiated in the country in 2015 and were intensified after the launch of the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) in 2016 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Due to the efforts made by the Government of India in the provision of microscopes, rapid diagnostics Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) about 5 crores have been distributed in 7 North-East States, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha up to 2018-19 and another 2.25 crore LLINs are being supplied/distributed during current financial year to high burden areas leading to reduction in endemicity in these otherwise very high endemic states, the official statement said.
