Can India eliminate malaria by 2030?, Pg15

Key Highlights:

• India aims to eliminate malaria by 2030 under the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (2016-2030).
• By the end of 2025, 160 districts across 23 States and UTs reported zero indigenous malaria cases from 2022 to 2024.
• Malaria cases in India reduced by approximately 80% between 2015 and 2023.
• In 2024, India accounted for 73.3% of the estimated 2.7 million malaria cases in the WHO South-East Asia Region.
• Tamil Nadu saw a decline in malaria cases from 5,587 in 2015 to 321 in 2025.

Detailed Insights:

• The WHO grants malaria-free certification when local transmission is interrupted for at least three years with a functional surveillance system.
• India exited the WHO “High Burden to High Impact” Group in 2024 due to significant reductions in malaria incidence and mortality.
• The National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Malaria Elimination (2023-2027) focuses on transforming surveillance, ensuring access to diagnosis and treatment, and enhancing vector control.
• Challenges to malaria elimination include migration from endemic areas, urban transmission dynamics, and persistent Plasmodium vivax transmission.
• Strategies to combat malaria include drug resistance monitoring, insecticide resistance monitoring, and ensuring compliance with radical treatment for Plasmodium vivax cases.
• Urban areas pose unique challenges due to rapid urbanization, infrastructure growth, and water storage conditions requiring individual household-level interventions.
• In 2023, only two States, Tripura (5.69) and Mizoram (14.23), had an annual parasite incidence of more than one.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Annual Parasite Incidence (API): The number of confirmed new malaria cases per 1,000 individuals under surveillance in a specific area.
• Vector Control: Methods used to limit or eradicate the mosquitoes or other vectors which transmit disease pathogens.
• Indigenous Transmission: When a disease is contracted from a local vector and not imported from another region.