World Malaria Day: Check Out Initiatives By AP, Telangana To Combat Malaria

World Malaria Day: Malaria is a deadly disease spread by mosquitoes that have been infected. If a person develops a fever and the chills, and if not treated swiftly, the symptoms can be fatal. Malaria affects about 200 million people each year, and approximately half a million people die prematurely as a result of it.

Even now, in modern times, half of the world is still in danger of contracting this completely preventable and treatable disease. While significant progress against malaria has been made in recent decades, there has been a recent plateau. The world still has a long way to go in terms of eradicating this fatal disease. Concerned citizens launched World Malaria Day as part of a strategy to accomplish just that!

World Malaria Day 2022 Theme

The theme for World Malaria Day 2022 will be "Harness Innovation to Reduce Malaria Disease Burden and Save Lives."

Also Read: Study Finds Zika Virus Could Get Dangerous With a Small Mutation

Malaria in India: Current Situation

Malaria is a big public health concern in India as well. Around 95 per cent of the country's population lives in malaria-endemic areas, with 80 per cent of malaria cases recorded in areas with 20 per cent of the population living in tribal, mountainous, tough, and inaccessible locations.

According to data from the National Health Mission, the number of malaria cases in the nation has been falling since 2002, after peaking at over 2 million cases per year in the late 1990s. The number of cases per year fell to 0.12 million in 2020.

According to the NHM research, the number of fatalities has also decreased, from 1,151 in 1995 to only 93 in 2020.

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have taken significant steps to eliminate the fatal illness.

Telangana’s Fight Against Malaria

As reported by Telangana Today, Telangana State has received national recognition and appreciation for its efforts to eliminate malaria in the last six years, between 2015 and 2021, as part of the National Framework for Malaria Elimination in India (NFMEI) initiative of the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), New Delhi.

In recent years, inter-sectoral coordination, including public healthcare facilities, municipalities, and the Panchayat Department, has resulted in a decrease in the number of malaria cases in the state.

Andhra Pradesh's Friday-Dryday Initiative Aims To Combat Malaria

The Central government has given Andhra Pradesh the top performance award and recognition for outstanding practices in malaria eradication. The award will be presented to the state government on Monday during the World Malaria Day event in New Delhi.

According to The Hindu, the State Health Department worked with the Panchayat Raj, Rural Water Supply, and Municipal Administration agencies at the village and ward secretariat level to develop programmes like Friday-Dryday, which helped reduce malaria cases in the state.

The state administration has ordered that everyone tidy their surroundings and limit mosquito breeding by designating every Friday as a dry day. So far this year, only 117 malaria cases have been registered in the state.