After Maldives, Sri lanka has become the second country in the South-East Asia region to be certified as malaria-free. India must take cue from neighbouring countries and get its act together not on only malaria, but a host of vector borne diseases
While India continues to go through the never ending cycle of vector borne diseases every year, especially during monsoons, neighboruing country Sri lanka has accomplished a remarkable public health achievement of breaking free from the epidemic of malaria by entirely eliminating the disease from the island country. Considering the fact that Sri lanka receives four times as much rainfall than India, the elimination of malaria is an amazing effort by the Government of Sri lanka. The World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledged the accomplishment by the lankan health authorities at the WHO South-East Asia Region’s annual regional committee meeting.
Sri lanka’s eradication of malaria is quite remarkable as till the mid-20th century, it was among the most malaria-affected countries of the region with maximum number of malarial cases reported from 1970’s to 1990’s. However, the Government was able to not only establish a strong anti-malarial campaign to meet the challenge of the diseases, but also tweaked it on numerous occasions in order to maintain the effectiveness of the campaign.
For instance, the strategy was adjusted to intensively target the parasite in addition to targeting the carrier mosquito through well-calibrated and responsive policies. The result was that by 2006, the country recorded less than 1,000 cases of malaria per year, and since October 2012, the indigenous cases went down to zero. In fact, Sri lanka has not reported a single locally transmitted case of malaria in the last 3.5 years.
Sri lanka is the only other nation in the South-East Asia region after Maldives that has logged success over malaria and is a helpful case study that showcases the significance of firm health policies that have the unwavering backing of Government. The policies implemented with regularity and consistency can help take targeted action and thereby achieve the objective in an effective manner.
Sri lanka was also able to engage the grass roots communities and register their support for the Government health policies and action plans, this played a major role in harvesting public health gains and eradicating threatening diseases.
With the Sri lankan success story as a regional example, India now has a never before necessity to get its act together on not only malaria, but a host of other vector borne diseases that plague the country year after year. These diseases consume precious lives and no amount of Government policies and actions seem to be having any impact in getting the desired result.
This year, India has already witnessed its share in the form of a huge upsurge of mosquito-borne infections like chikungunya and dengue, these diseases not only affect the health of the people but also have a telling impact on the economy of the country.
In order to have a compelling impact on checking the progress of malaria and other vector borne diseases, the Government needs adaptive policies and action plans that are not only in tune with increasing intensity of the diseases, but also factor in the environmental aspects. A rapidly degrading environment, especially in the urban areas, is the main host for vector borne diseases and this needs to be understood and included in the policy planning stage. This will help in evolving policies that account for the state of the environment while solving the challenge of the diseases.
According to a 2016 estimate by the Ministry of Health, India hopes to eliminate malaria by 2030. But for achieving this, firstly, the data on the disease needs to be accurate and dependable. Official estimates suggest nearly one million malaria cases are reported annually across the country, however India’s data on malaria is anything but clear and has always been a matter of dispute between the Government and global development agencies, this needs to be resolved by the present Government in order to commence the first stage of malaria eradication.
The Government has taken a welcome step of initiating the National Framework for Malaria Elimination. But the efforts can be successful only if unconventional and determined efforts are undertaken to establish progress in controlling and eventually ending the disease. As a part of the efforts, the Government must increase the number of mobile malaria clinics in high transmission areas which will help in prompt and effective treatment besides reducing the parasite reservoir and the possibility of further transmission.
Additionally, the Government can also establish effective surveillance, community engagement and health education. These measures will enable the health authorities to respond and mobilise support for the campaign. Globally, about 3.2 billion people are at risk by malaria, which is half the world's population and as per 2015 statistics by WHO there were 214 million cases of malaria in 2015 and over four lakh deaths worldwide. These figures underline the seriousness of the disease and India will do well to add itself to the list nations such as Sri lanka that have eradicated malaria from their respective countries.