MUMBAI: Even as the country won global accolades for contributing to the largest drop in malaria cases in south-east Asia, Maharashtra has recorded a 22% jump in incidence of the vector-borne disease this year.
Bucking the declining trend seen over the past five years, malaria deaths, too, have increased by over 70% in 2020 so far.
Between January and October, 10,858 cases were recorded by the state’s public health department, up from 8,868 in entire 2019. The state has also reported 12 deaths, a jump from seven mortalities registered in the entire 2019.
Incidentally, fatalities had dropped to a single digit last year for the first time in years.
WHO: Cases in India down 18% last year
India is the only high endemic country to have reported a 17.6% decline in malaria cases during 2019 as compared to the previous year, according to a WHO report. Between 2000 and 2019, malaria cases in India dropped by over 83% to around 3.4 lakh, whereas deaths declined by 92%.
‘Manpower for malaria control was diverted to contain Covid’
With two more months left before the year ends, the percentage of increase is only slated to grow.
Worryingly, of the 10,858 cases, 5,521 were of falciparum malaria, the type that is known to be more virulent. Falciparum cases, too, have doubled this year compared with 2018 (2,697) and 2019 (2,567). Of the dozen deaths, five were reported from Gadchiroli, two from Gondia, three from Chandrapur and two from Bhandara. Mumbai, too, has seen two malaria deaths with Covid infection, but it’s unclear whether they have been counted as malaria mortalities by the state.
A state official said the diversion of manpower in endemic areas such as Gadchiroli from malaria-control activities to Covid-19 in the initial days of the pandemic may have contributed to the rise. “Although, as soon as cases and deaths started increasing, volunteers were deployed to restart the vector control activities,” said a senior official, adding dengue cases, by contrast, have seen a dramatic decline. Prior to the pandemic year, Maharashtra was registering an annual incidence drop of 18% to 39%.
Infectious disease expert Dr Om Srivastava said the interplay of factors such as temperature, humidity and vector-control measures in open spaces play a role in the increase of malaria cases. “However, with much less garbage accumulation this year compared with the previous years, it needs to be understood why there was a spurt,” he said.
In Mumbai, despite a lockdown, cases have seen a marginal rise. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said there was an around 2% increase in cases but very few deaths. The city has seen fewer than 5,000 cases so far this year.
Civic officials said south Mumbai wards, E and G-South in particular, saw the highest burden. “Metro work posed a challenge as the underground sites were left unattended overnight due to the lockdown. As rains started, the underground metro sites saw major water accumulation,” said Rajan Naringrekar, insecticide officer, adding breeding in suburbs was under control.