Govt: India only high endemic country to report malaria cases decline of 17.6% in '19 over '18

New Delhi: The WHO's World Malaria Report (WMR) 2020, which provides estimated cases for malaria across the world based on mathematical projections, indicates that India has made considerable progress in reducing its malaria burden, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday.

India is the only high endemic country which has reported a decline of 17.6 per cent in 2019 as compared to 2018 as far as malaria cases are concerned, it said.

"The Annual Parasitic Incidence (API) reduced by 27.6 per cent in 2018 as compared to 2017, and by 18.4 per cent in 2019 as compared to 2018. India has sustained API less than one since year 2012," the ministry said.

India has also contributed to the largest drop in such cases region-wide, from approximately 20 million to about 6 million.

The percentage drop in the malaria cases was 71.8 per cent and deaths was 73.9 per cent between 2000 to 2019, the ministry said.

India 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), thereby achieving Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals (50-75 per cent decrease in case incidence between 2000 and 2019).

"Decrease in incidence of malaria cases is also exhibited in the year-on-year tally. The cases and fatalities have declined significantly by 21.27 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively in the year 2019 (3,38,494 cases, 77 deaths) as compared to 2018 (4,29,928 cases, 96 deaths).

"The total number of malaria cases reported in 2020 till October(1,57,284) has further decreased by 45.02 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of 2019 (2,86,091)," the ministry

said.

Malaria elimination efforts were initiated in the country in 2015 and intensified after the launch of the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) in 2016 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (2017-22) was launched by the health ministry in July, 2017 which laid down strategies for the next five years.