The Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016u20132030 was introduced by the WHO in its mission to eradicate malaria worldwide as a key public health and sustainable development goal, with a target of doing so in at least 10 countries by 2020.
Source: Twitter
The bold new goal of a 90% reduction in malaria cases worldwide by 2030 was intended to make a significant contribution to the implementation of the post-2015 sustainable development framework.
Prior to the Covid-19 epidemic, India achieved considerable strides, as seen by a 71.8% drop in malaria cases and a 73.9% drop in fatalities between 2000 and 2019. India stood up as the only country with a high endemic rate who saw cases drop by 17.6% in 2019 compared to 2018 and by a further 45.6% between 2019 and 2020.
The World Malaria Report 2022 indicates that India did not distribute any of the insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) intended for distribution in 2021 among the countries funded under the high burden high impact (HBHI) method. There have been reports of Pfhrp2/3 gene deletions in India, which indicate a higher chance of rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) failing and resulting in fewer detections.
2019 saw a 21% increase in malaria incidence among tribal populations residing in forested areas, despite making up only 6.6% of India’s total population. These regions were responsible for 42 percent of malaria-related deaths between 2000 and 2019. Increased insecticide resistance, a high prevalence of diseases that are smaller than a human hair, and obstacles to ‘test and treat’ populations are some of the issues that have been observed in these districts.
Source: NDTV
The other three states and UTsu2014Bihar, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Meghalayau2014are anticipated to follow suit as soon as malaria becomes a notifiable disease in 33 states and UTs. In the last stages of elimination in any state or district, notification by private sector practitioners and institutions is essential. Even the best-performing health programmes, like vaccination, face significant difficulties in providing effective and responsive primary care to the poor and peri-urban communities.
These sub-populations can present significant last-mile issues due to widespread movement across India. A crucial component of achieving cross-border cooperation for malaria control and elimination is gathering standardised data on the epidemiology of cross-border malaria.
India’s success in eliminating polio and progress in eliminating measles-rubella have amply illustrated the need for programmes to continuously learn from their experiences and conduct implementation research in order to support the efficient application of elimination strategies and address new challenges.
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