India to eliminate malaria by 2027

Malaria is a vector-borne disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite which spreads through the bite of the female Anopheles mosquitoes.

Malaria affected 214 million people and killed 4,38,000 people in 2015.

Fever, chills, headache, vomiting, etc. are some of the symptoms of malaria.

According to WHO, 3.2 billion people or half of the world population is vulnerable to this life threatening disease.

According to the WHO, India has made progress in reducing the number of malaria cases by more than half between 2000-13.

However, shortage of medicines, equipment, data-manipulation, inadequate staff, and awareness campaigns makes malaria difficult to control in India.

The north-eastern states, tribal belts of central India, etc., which face internal conflicts and have poor access to healthcare account for the majority of cases.

While according to the Government of India, less than 300 people died due to malaria in 2015, a study in The Lancet placed the number at around 50,000.

The report suggested that thousands died even without an accurate diagnosis of the disease.

This eventually affected the malaria control program severely as the requirement of drugs and other facilities were not correctly estimated.

Under the National Framework for Malaria Elimination, the states will be divided into 3 categories based on the Annual Parasite Incidence (API), the annual number of cases per 1000 people.

Phase-I covers states with API less than 1, both at state and district level.

Phase-II covers states with API of 1 at state level but more than 1 in districts.

Phase-III covers remaining states.

India is set to embark on an ambitious plan to eliminate malaria by 2027, 3 years before the WHO's (World Health Organization) global target of 2030.

The National Framework for Malaria Elimination is already in final stages of planning and is expected to be launched by the government on 11 Feb'16.

The framework divides the states into 3 categories and tackles low-incidence states first.