World Malaria Day 2023: Maharashtra reports 20 per cent drop in malaria cases

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Atleast 17 patients of malaria are being found each day in Maharashtra each day, a health department report said.

In the first three months of 2023, the state has reported 1,487 malaria cases, a 20 per cent drop as compared to previous year. The drop was a result of various measures being taken by the state government, officials said.

According to the health department, in the year 2022, the total number of patients infected with malaria remained zero in 5 districts of Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded, Parbhani and Hingoli.

On April 25, the World Malaria Day is marked. This year's slogan is "Zero Malaria: Invest, Innovate, Implement".

The officials said that the health department will implement schemes in all rural and urban areas throughout the year. The goal is to make the state malaria free.

According to the health department, in the year 2021, 1,33,67,379 blood samples were tested while in 2022, a total of 1,64,70951 blood samples were tested. Despite the higher number of tests in 2022 as compared to the year 2021, there has been a decrease in the number of infected patients by 20 per cent.

Also Read: Mumbai reports 59 new cases of Covid-19, active tally at 1,264

Measures being taken for mosquito control

State's surveillance officer Dr. Babita Kamlapur said, "House-to-house spraying of synthetic pyrethroid insecticides is being done in selected and outbreak-prone villages of the state. Whereas under the Civil Malaria Scheme, Temephos, B.T.I. insecticides are being sprayed."

10,788 mosquito breeding sites destroyed in Mumbai

Under the malaria eradication campaign, the Municipal Insecticides Department is working throughout the year to control the breeding of 'Anopheles stephensi', the species of mosquitoes that cause malaria. In the past one year, the Department of Insecticides has searched and destroyed around 10,788 breeding places of these mosquitoes. Most of these, around 2,418 sites were destroyed in July 2022- the peak monsoon period in the city. 2,128 breeding sites were destroyed in August, atleast 1,496 were destroyed in June and 1,337 in September, the officials said.

10 cases of malaria

Washim, Sangli, Beed, Bhandara, Ratnagiri, Dhule, Nandurbar, Wardha, Ahmednagar, Kolhapur, Nashik, Jalgaon, Solapur, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalan and Yavatmal are the 16 districts where malaria cases are between 1 and 10.

Malaria case status in Maharashtra
2020 - 12,909
2021- 19303
2022 - 15,451
2023 (till March end) - 1,487