India aims to be malaria-free by 2030

With an aim to eliminate malaria, India is set to intensify its efforts and focus at the micro level from this year so to attain malaria-free status by 2030. An ambitious programme seeking to accelerate the progress on malaria eradication is in the offing whereby by the end of 2016, all states/UTs will be expected to include malaria elimination programmes in their health policies and planning frameworks.

Union health minister J.P. Nadda will launch the National Framework for Malaria Elimination in India (2016-2030) Friday with an aim that by the end of 2017 all states will be expected to bring down annual parasite incidence (API) to less than 1 per thousand population and by the end of 2020, about 15 low endemic states will be expected to interrupt transmission of malaria and achieve zero indigenous cases and deaths due to malaria, consequently to maintain malaria-free status of the by 2030.

The agenda is also to eliminate malaria from all low and moderate endemic states/UTs by 2022 and malaria elimination in 31 states/UTs by 2024. The deadline is also to interrupt indigenous transmission of malaria in all states/UTs by 2027.

“The health ministry has set its target that by 2030, the entire country has sustained zero indigenous cases and deaths due to malaria,” said a senior health ministry official. The framework also envisages that in states with relatively good health infrastructure like Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, accelerated efforts may report malaria elimination sooner — within two to three years.

India contributes 70 per cent of malaria cases and 69 per cent of malaria deaths in SEAR countries. At present, 80 per cent of malaria occurs among 20 per cent of the people classified as “high risk”, although approximately 82 per cent of the country’s population lives in malaria transmission risk areas. These high-risk populations are found in 200 districts of AP, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra, Orissa, Bengal and N-E states.

The WHO has too recently released the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016- 2030 (GTS)5, which advocates acceleration of global malaria elimination efforts by 2030 and has set targets of reducing malaria mortality rate and malaria case incidence globally by 90% by 2030 (baseline 2015).