Malaria cases, deaths dip in India: ICMR report
NEW DELHI: Malaria cases in India have dropped from 1.17 million in 2015 to around 227,000 in 2024, an 80-85% reduction, said a latest ICMR report released Wednesday. Similarly, malaria-related deaths have fallen from 384 to approximately 83, a decrease of about 78%. India has made significant and steady progress in reducing its malaria burden, said the report, Indias progress towards malaria elimination technical report 2025 by Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Malaria Research (ICMR-NIMR), National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC). Currently, 92% of districts report an Annual Parasite Incidence (API) is less than 1, indicating that India has largely entered the pre-elimination phase and is well-positioned for accelerated malaria elimination in the coming years, the report released by Union Health Minister JP Nadda said. These gains are underpinned by strengthened surveillance, expanded access to diagnosis and treatment, targeted vector control interventions, and sustained political and programmatic commitment at national and sub-national levels, it said. India aims to eliminate Malaria by 2030, with the government saying that it is committed to achieving zero Indigenous cases by 2027. India is well-positioned to achieve zero indigenous malaria by 2030. Achieving this goal will require sustained political commitment, strengthened multisectoral coordination, and data-driven interventions, the report said. However, as India transitions from malaria control to elimination, the nature of the challenge has fundamentally changed. The current phase is characterised not only by a substantially reduced overall disease burden but also by increasingly heterogeneous, focal, and operationally complex transmission, it added. Malaria is no longer uniformly distributed across large geographic areas; instead, it persists in limited pockets shaped by local ecological conditions, human mobility, occupational exposure, health-system access, and vector dynamics. In several states approaching elimination, remaining cases are often sporadic, imported, or asymptomatic, making detection, investigation, and response more demanding than in earlier phases of higher transmission. The report highlighted that urban transmission presents unique challenges related to container breeding, construction sites, informal settlements, high population density, and fragmented healthcare delivery, necessitating city-specific vector control and surveillance strategies. It highlighted key challenges in the country, including inconsistent private-sector reporting, limited entomological capacity, drug and insecticide resistance, operational gaps in remote tribal areas, and sporadic shortages of diagnostics and treatment commodities. Cross-border transmission from Myanmar and Bangladesh continues to affect border districts in the Northeast. Strengthening surveillance systems, enhancing vector monitoring, and improving supply chain reliability emerged as top priorities, it added.
10 C
