World Health Organization (WHO) recently released World Malaria Report.

As per the report in 2022, there were an estimated 249 million malaria cases globally,
exceeding the pre-pandemic level of 233 million in 2019 by 16 million cases. The number of malaria deaths also remained higher than the pre-pandemic levels. There were 608,000 deaths reported in 2022 as compared to 576,000 cases in 2019. The report noted that near to 46 per cent of all cases were due to Plamodium vivax, a protozoal parasite and a human pathogen.

The 11 original High burden to high impact” (HBHI) countries include Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Mali, Mozambique,
Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. A 12th country, Sudan, adopted the HBHI approach in 2022.

In addition to the disruptions caused by COVID-19, the global malaria response has faced a growing number of threats, such as drug and insecticide resistance, humanitarian crises, resource constraints, climate change impacts, and delays in program implementation particularly in countries with a high burden of the disease.

The report shows that India  continued to show a decline in the number of cases and deaths due to the mosquito-borne infection.
With an estimated 33.8 lakh cases and 5,511 deaths, India saw a decline of 30 per cent in malaria incidence and 34 per cent in mortality in 2022, compared to the previous year.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria is an acute febrile illness.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes, called “malaria vectors.” There are 5 parasite species that cause malaria in humans, and 2 of these species – P. falciparum
and P. vivax – pose the greatest threat.

Falciparum is the most prevalent malaria parasite on the African continent. It is responsible for most malaria-related deaths globally.

Vivax is the dominant malaria parasite in most countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa.

India is one of 15 countries in the world to have the highest cases and deaths of malaria, the World Health Organisation’s 2017 World Malaria Report revealed.The report put India along with 14 countries from the Sub Saharan African region, with 80 percent of the world’s cases and deaths.

             
     Nigeria bore the highest burden in the world, as it topped these 15 countries with 30 percent of the deaths. Four African countries accounted for just over half of all malaria deaths worldwide: Nigeria (31.9%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (13.2%), United Republic of Tanzania (4.1%) and Mozambique (3.8%).

             
   India’s health ministry has projected that India will be malaria-free by 2030. The health ministry has announced plans to ensure “zero indigenous cases and deaths due to malaria for 3 years,” in order to gain the malaria-free status by 2030. National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (2017-22) was launched by the Health Ministry in July, 2017 which laid down strategies for the next five years.

As per the World Health Organization (WHO) the World Malaria Report 2021, India was the only high burden country to record progress by sustaining a reduction in malaria burden between 2019 and 2020. However, the rate of decline was slower than before the pandemic, the WHO report stated, with the country still sharing over 80 per cent of the malaria
burden of South-East Asia.