World Malaria Report 2018: Led by Odisha, India reduces cases by 3 million

With about 9.5 million malaria cases in 2017, down 3 million cases since 2016, India is no longer among the top three countries with the highest malaria burden.

Among the 11 nations with 70% of the world’s burden of malaria, only India has managed to reduce its disease burden, registering a 24% decrease between 2016 and 2017, according to the World Malaria Report 2018.

With about 9.5 million malaria cases in 2017, down 3 million cases since 2016, India is no longer among the top three countries with the highest malaria burden. However, 1.25 billion Indians--94% of its population--are still at risk of malaria, the report noted.

Globally, the progress made against malaria has stalled for the second consecutive year: The annual report produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed a plateauing. In 2017, there were an estimated 219 million cases of malaria, compared to 217 million the year before. Previously, people contracting malaria globally had been steadily falling, from 239 million in 2010 to 214 million in 2015.

India has set 2030 as the target year for eliminating malaria. It currently accounts for 4% of global malaria cases and 52% of malaria deaths outside the African region.

India’s success is “largely due to substantial declines of the disease in the highly malarious state of Odisha, home to approximately 40% of all malaria cases in the country”, said the WHO spokesperson in an emailed interview.

Odisha reported an 80% decline in malaria cases and deaths in 2017. Reported malaria cases in the state also declined from 347,860 in 2017 to 55,365 in 2018 (January to September) and deaths dropped from 24 to four during the same period, according to government data.

IndiaSpend spoke to experts on how Odisha succeeded in fighting the disease and what can the rest of the country learn from its example.

Odisha took the battle against malaria to remote forests

As we said, Odisha accounted for 40% of India’s malaria burden, and its remote, heavily-forested regions with scattered tribal populations were the most vulnerable.

The state had seen early success in malaria reduction between 2010 and 2013 but cases started increasing again and the state recorded the highest number of cases--444,843--in 2016... Read More

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