The World Health Organisation's World Malaria Report 2014, released recently, indicates dramatic success against malaria, with mortality rates down by 47% globally since 2000, and 55 countries, including India, on track to reduce their malaria burden by 75% next year.
Without much publicity, India got many things right in the war against malaria. A cost–benefit analysis has calculated that each rupee invested by the National Malaria Control Program pays a dividend of Rs 19.7.
Malaria along with six other diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, measles, hepatitis B, diarrhoea, and pneumonia) imposes a great socio-economic burden and accounted for 85% of the global infectious disease burden, according to a retrospective study.
"The parasite has been killing children and sapping the strength of whole populations for tens of thousands of years. It will take leadership, innovation, and money to plan for malaria's eventual eradication," said billionaire Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds various interventions against the disease. "Now, we can chart a course to end it."
"The recent findings in the WHO report of 2014 indicate that the world is continuing to make impressive progress in reducing malaria cases and deaths," wrote Margaret Chan, WHO Director General.
But, it is not yet time to celebrate this hard-won achievement, not in India, Dr G S Sonal, Additional Director, National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme (NVBDCP), told IndiaSpend.
Malaria and its cat-and-mouse game with India
In 1947, 75 million of India's 330 million people were estimated to have malaria, the numbers declined to 100,000 in 1964. But, malaria made a comeback and by 1976, more than 6.4 million cases were reported. Malaria cases stabilised at 2 million by the 1990s, according to this study.
Since then, as living conditions and accessibility to good health care improved, the conditions for malaria transmission have been steadily eroded.
"There have been many factors and sustained efforts over the years that have contributed to this steady decline of malaria in India, and we need to maintain the momentum," said Dr. Sonal.
In 2006, there was a spike in India's malaria-related deaths, with 1707 deaths reported. Although this could be attributed to multiple factors, including climatic fluctuations, population movements, and extreme weather, there is always a chance that numbers may fluctuate, said Dr. Sonal.