MALARIA (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Sci and Tech)

Context: Recently, India recorded the highest number of malaria cases in the South East Asia region of the World Health Organization (WHO), accounting for 66 percent of the 5.2 million cases reported in 2022.

• This is even as cases reduced by at least 55 per cent in India, where the disease is endemic, according to World Malaria Report 2023.

Key Points

• Climate change can directly interact with the sensitivity of the malaria pathogen and the vector (female Anopheles mosquito) to temperature, rainfall and humidity, and make it easier for the contagion to spread and infect.
• India, along with Indonesia, also accounted for 94 per cent of all the deaths that occurred due to malaria in 2022, the data showed.

Malaria

• About: Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite.
• Transmission: Anopheles mosquitoes are the type of mosquito that transmit malaria from one person to another. Not all Anopheles mosquitoes have malaria, but if they bite a person with malaria, they can become infectious.
• Symptoms: Early Symptoms - Fever and flu-like illness, Chills, Headache, muscle aches, and tiredness. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
• Severe Symptoms:  kidney failure, seizures, mental confusion, and coma.

Government Initiatives:

• National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME), 2016-2030: To eliminate malaria in India in a phased manner. The goal is to achieve zero indigenous cases of Malaria in the country by 2027 and to sustain elimination by 2030.
• National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination: To eliminate Malaria by 2027 three years ahead of 2024 which is the global deadline for the elimination of Malaria.