Malaria Eradication Program : World Malaria Day
Recently, on the occasion of World Malaria Day, the Union Health Minister presided over the program “Reaching Zero” on malaria eradication.
It is to be noted that World Malaria Day is observed every year on 25thApril. The theme of World Malaria Day 2021 is “Reaching the zero malaria targets” by the World Health Organization.
The main objective of the World Malaria Day celebrations is to inspire the global community and all affected countries to eradicate malaria.
Key Facts:
- Malaria is a major disease in developing countries. India is also not immune to this disease. According to the 2016 World Malaria Report, India accounts for 89% of all malaria cases in the Southeast Asian region.
- While India’s neighboring country Maldives has been declared malaria free by the World Health Organization in the year 2015 and Sri Lanka in the year
- India’s commitment to eradicate malaria is also evident from the fact that the Prime Minister of India supported the malaria eradication action plan of the “Asia Pacific Leadership Malaria Alliance” at the East Asia Summit held in Malaysia in 2015.
- At the summit, all the leaders of the “Asia Pacific Leadership Malaria Alliance” pledged to become malaria-free by 2030 from the Asia Pacific region.
- The National Strategic Plan for the Eradication of Malaria (2017-2022) has been implemented by the Government of India, which has yielded very positive results to India.
- According to a report of the Government of India, there has been a decrease of 5 percent in malaria patients in 2020 and 83.6 percent decline in mortality compared to the year 2015.
- According to the World Health Organization’s Malaria Report-2020, India is the only country to have registered a decline of 6 percent in the year 2019 as compared to the year 2018.
- In the years 2000 to 2019, India has succeeded in reducing the number of patients by 34 percent and in reducing the death rate by 92 percent.
- Because of this, India has also achieved the 6th target of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (50 to 75 per cent decline in malaria cases between 2000 and 2019).
- Malaria-free campaign has been successfully implemented in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, which is most affected by malaria in India.
- In this way, the government maintains that, with active community participation and rapid inter-sectoral coordination, India will achieve the goal of eradicating malaria by
“National Strategy Plan for the Elimination of Malaria (2017-2022)”
- To make India malaria free, the Ministry of Health had implemented the “National Strategy Plan for the Elimination of Malaria (2017-2022)”.
- Under this scheme, entire districts of the country are divided into four categories (from 0 to 3). These include districts in category-0, which have not received any cases of malaria for the last three years.
- Similarly, the districts of category 1,2and 3 are divided on the basis of increasing cases of malaria. Category-1 and category-2 districts are targeted to be malaria-free by
Malaria Parasites in India
- Malaria in India is mainly caused by two parasites Plasmodium vivax (Pv) and Plasmodium falciparum (Pf).
- Plasmodium falciparum parasite is predominantly found in forest areas and Plasmodium vivax parasite is more prevalent in plains.
- Major malaria affected states of India are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya.
Source – PIB
