Cases of Dengue and Malaria have halved in Jharkhand since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the state in March 2020, indicating that aggressive sanitization works to combat Coronavirus coupled with intensified campaigns against vector-borne diseases has led to the significant drop in cases of ailments caused by mosquito bites, officials said on Wednesday.
As per data compiled by the Jharkhand unit of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), cases of Malaria dropped by more than 50 per cent from 2019 to 2020, when Covid-induced restrictions and precautionary measures were introduced for the first time. Interestingly, after the huge drop from 2019 to 2020, hardly 3 per cent drop was recorded in cases of malaria from 2020 to 2021.
As per this data, the state reported 37,133 malaria cases in 2019 and 16,655 cases of the disease in 2020. In 2021, the state has so far reported 6467 cases of malaria from January to July against 6692 cases reported from January to July in 2020.
Dengue cases also witnessed a significant drop since Covid-induced restrictions were imposed. As per NVBDCP data, Dengue cases dropped from 825 in 2019 to hardly 79 in 2020. From January to July this year, the state has reported 53 dengue cases.
Besides the adherence to Covid-19 protocol of regular sanitization of affected localities, the NVBDCP had also intensified measures to check the spread of vector-borne diseases during this period following a warning from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) that spread of vector-borne diseases may increase the gravity of the Covid-19 situation in the state, officials said.
While figures indicate that measures taken to fight Covid-19 were partly responsible for the drop in cases of Dengue and Malaria, State Malaria Officer Dr. Shesh Narayan Jha said that intensified campaign against vector-borne diseases had a greater role to play in checking dengue and malaria cases than Covid-induced precautionary measures.
“The cases of Dengue and Malaria dropped because of our intensive campaign against vector-borne diseases,” said Dr. Jha, admitting that sanitization works due to Covid-19 may have killed germs, insects and viruses.
The pandemic, according to Jha, made the vector-borne disease control initiatives even more challenging for the teams in the tribal state as they had to follow Covid protocols and take precautionary measures during the campaign.
“The Indoor Residual Spray done to protect households from vector-borne diseases played the most important role in checking the cases,” said Dr. Jha.