Meet to devise strategic action to control malaria tomorrow

New Delhi, Apr 10 (UNI) A National Meet on Malaria would be held tomorrow to deliberate on the disease situation and devise strategic District Action Plans for effective prevention and control of the parasitic disease in endemic districts.

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss would chair the meeting of the District Collectors from 45 high malaria endemic districts in eleven States.

The National Health Policy has set the goal of reduction in mortality on account of malaria by 50 per cnet by 2010 and efficient morbidity control. But despite effective tools and technologies and support for malaria control, certain constraints in programme management at implementation level exists. The government, therefore, felt an urgent need for strategic micro-planning with package of focused interventions with proven effectiveness that could generate the greatest impact in the high risk areas.

The high risk areas of malaria are largely rural, tribal, difficult, remote and inaccessible, forested and forest fringed with operational difficulties. The North eastern states, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are particularly affected although there are high-risk districts in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat as well. These states also report high proportion of Plasmodium falciparum as well as deaths.

Among the vector-borne diseases, malaria continues to be a public health threat in different parts of the country, particularly due to Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for severe malaria and sometimes even deaths, if not treated early.

Malaria adversely affects the productivity at family and community levels, thereby posing serious economic and developmental challenges.

Although the number of malaria positive cases has declined from 3.04 million in 1996 to 1.65 million in 2006, the proportion of Plasmodium falciparum has increased from 39 to 45 per cent.

Those who would attend the meeting include District Collectors of 45 high Plasmodium falciparum endemic districts from 11 states, Secretaries, Directors and officials from the respective State Health Departments, partner institutions, the WHO and World Bank.

Since there are many high risk districts in Orissa, a separate meeting of Collectors of 20 districts is proposed to be held later in Bhubaneswar.

UNI