At a time when the West Bengal government is trying to tackle the dengue outbreak, another vector-borne disease has become a cause for concern in the State. Directorate of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme data suggest that West Bengal has registered the highest number of deaths due to malaria so far in 2017 at 26. The website provides State-wise statistics on malaria till September 2017.
Data further show that in 2017, 12,524 people were diagnosed with malaria out of the 66,17,866 blood samples tested. In 2016, the State registered 59 deaths due to malaria out of the 35,236 people who tested positive for the disease.
In the current year West Bengal is followed by Odisha, which has recorded 25 deaths due to malaria out of the 3,23,800 people who were diagnosed with the disease. Last year Odisha recorded 77 deaths due to malaria and 4,49,697 people had tested positive for the disease.
Maharashtra occupied the third slot with 15 malaria deaths this year out of the 13,444 people who were diagnosed with the disease. Last year it recorded 26 deaths due to malaria.