India is the only high malaria endemic country in the world which has reported a decline  of 17.6 per cent  in vector-borne cases in 2019 as compared to 2018, according to the latest report by the World Health Organization (WHO).

 Stating that various sustained anti-malarial measures are bearing results, the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday said that the Annual Parasitic Incidence (API) reduced by 27.6 per cent in 2018 as compared to 2017, and by 18.4 per cent in 2019 as compared to 2018.

“India has sustained API less than one since the year 2012,” the Ministry said in a statement here.

As per the   WHO’s World Malaria Report (WMR) 2020, India has also contributed to the largest drop in such cases region-wide, from approximately 20 million to about 6 million.

The percentage drop in the malaria cases was 71.8 per cent and deaths were 73.9 percent between 2000 to 2019, it said.

India achieved a reduction of 83.34 per cent in malaria morbidity and 92 per cent in malaria mortality between the year 2000 (20,31,790 cases, 932 deaths) and 2019 (3,38,494 cases, 77 deaths), thereby achieving Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals (50-75 per cent decrease in case incidence between 2000 and 2019).

“Decrease in the incidence of malaria cases is also exhibited in the year-on-year tally. The cases and fatalities have declined significantly by 21.27 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively in the year 2019 (3,38,494 cases, 77 deaths) as compared to 2018 (4,29,928 cases, 96 deaths).

“The total number of malaria cases reported in 2020 till October(1,57,284) has further decreased by 45.02 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of 2019 (2,86,091),” the ministry said quoting the report.