After five long years, malaria is back with a vengeance in the national Capital and the number of cases has shot up alarmingly to 113, of which 40 cases were detected this month.
The National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR) has found two new species of Anopheles Stephensi (urban vector) and Anopheles Culicifacies (rural vector) circulating this year.
The parasitic infection was lying dormant after mutating, but it has made a comeback after a gap of five years at a time when Delhi is already reeling under the scourge of dengue and chikungunya.
Experts have raised the red flag after the resurgence of this deadly parasite and have advised Government agencies to take adequate measures to arrest the spread of this deadly infectious disease that can play havoc with people’s health.
NIMR Director Neena Valecha told The Pioneer, “The cases being reported now are because of better detection and surveillance. In Delhi, the nearby villages are adding
to malaria cases because of poor hygiene and drainage system. About 40 per cent patients have a travel history which suggests that people contracted the disease outside Delhi and once they came back, the infection spread.”
Confirming this, a municipal official said, “Of the 113 people suffering from malaria, 62 belonged to Delhi, while 51 of the cases diagnosed in Delhi were traced to other States.”
Dr Valecha added, “We are working on the lines of the National Malaria Control Programme and the target is to eliminate it by 2030. This year, we have found Anopheles Stephensi and Anopheles Culicifacies circulating. Incidentally, of the approximately 430 Anopheles species, only 40 to 50 transmit malaria. Earlier, Delhi had seen a few cases of malarial infection with Plasmodium Vivax and Plasmodium Falciparum parasite, but they were not much.”
“Dengue and chikungunya are transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, while malaria is caused by the plasmodium parasite that is passed from one human to another with the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes,” she explained.
Apart from malaria threatening to escalate in Delhi, dengue cases have reached close to 100. The number of chikungunya cases recorded in the city stood at nearly 150 till June 24 as per the data released by the Municipal Corporations on Tuesday.
Out of the 149 cases of chikungunya, 11 were recorded in June, even as authorities have taken a number of initiatives to combat its possible outbreak.
With 14 cases of dengue being reported in June, the number of cases has risen to an alarming 97 this season.
The SDMC has launched a pilot project whereby about 200 dengue breeding checkers in select vulnerable regions have been armed with tablets to record data during inspection of households and feed it into the central control room in real time.
A senior SDMC official said a full-fledged awareness drive through distribution of pamphlets and plying of vehicles carrying loudspeakers, announcing dos and don’ts, has been launched for prevention of vector-borne diseases.
The Delhi Government on June 23 had issued instructions to State-run and private hospitals and nursing homes to increase their bed capacity by up to 20 per cent for the next six months to deal with the possible outbreak of dengue and chikungunya.
The Government also banned over-the-counter sale of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as Aspirin and Brufen as their use may “pose a threat” to dengue and chikungunya patients.
Though the season of vector-borne diseases had ended in December, the city continues to report such cases, prompting authorities to prepare a roadmap for the combat plan. The season for the vector-borne diseases begins from mid-July and generally lasts until November.