New Delhi, December 11 (IANS). India has made significant progress in reducing malaria cases and mortality, according to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s latest World Malaria Report released on Wednesday.
Malaria is a deadly disease spread by female Anopheles mosquitoes to humans. It can be prevented and it is treatable.
The report revealed that the estimated number of malaria cases in the country has declined from 64 lakh in 2017 to 20 lakh in 2023, a decline of 69 percent.
The estimated number of deaths from malaria also declined from 11,100 to 3,500 during the same period, representing a 68 percent reduction.
“India has officially moved out of the High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) group in 2024,” WHO said.
The HBHI approach is a targeted malaria response used to accelerate malaria elimination in many high-burden countries. India joined the HBHI initiative in July 2019.
The HBHI initiative was launched in four states of the country, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
Additionally, the report revealed that half of the projected malaria cases in the WHO South-East Asia region in 2023 were from India. It is followed by Indonesia, which accounts for about one-third.
In the year 2023, there were eight countries affected by malaria in the region, with 4 million cases and their contribution to malaria cases globally was 1.5 percent.
About 48 percent of all estimated cases in the region were caused by a parasite called Plasmodium vivax.
However, the report said that globally, malaria cases declined by 82.4 percent from 2000 to 2023. Their number was 2.28 crore in the year 2000. The rate of malaria among the at-risk population also declined by 87 percent to 0.23 percent during this period from 1.77 percent in 2000.
WHO said, “The main reason for this reduction is the reduction of 1.77 crore estimated cases in India and the number of cases per 1000 population at risk from 20 to 1.5, which represents a reduction of 93 percent.”
The report said India and Indonesia account for about 88 percent of the projected total malaria deaths in the region in 2023.
The region’s Bhutan and Timor-Leste have had no deaths from malaria since 2013 and 2015 respectively, while Sri Lanka was declared malaria-free in 2016.
Saima Wajed, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for South-East Asia, said this progress is in line with the highest political commitment ever made by Member States, building on years of concerted work and tireless efforts down to the sub-national level. matches.
Data from the World Health Organization show that an estimated 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths were averted since 2000, but the disease remains a serious global health threat, particularly in the World Health Organization’s African Region.
In the year 2023, 26.3 crore cases of malaria were reported worldwide, which is 11 lakh more than in 2022. There were also 5,97,000 deaths.
“An expanded package of life-saving equipment now provides better protection against the disease, but investment and measures are needed to accelerate investment to reduce the threat in high-burden countries,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “
-IANS
MKS/AKJ
