Odisha achieved 90% reduction in Malaria cases in 3 years: State Govt

In a piece of good news, Odisha has achieved 90 per cent reduction of Malaria positive cases in the last three years, according to an official release by the state government on Friday.

As per the release, Odisha is now moving towards eliminating Malaria with 90 per cent reduction in the number of positive cases over the last three years. This was known from Inter-Departmental Coordination meeting on the prevention of vector-borne diseases held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra.

As per the State Government, the reduction rate of malaria infection in the State between 2018 and 2019 has been 40 per cent against the national average of 17 per cent during the same period.

Reviewing the progress over the last years, Chief Secretary Mohapatra directed concerned departments to take all preventive steps for checking any possible outbreak of the disease during the current year including industrial and mining areas. The industrial houses were advised to develop their dedicated public health units with testing and surveillance facilities.

The Housing and Urban Development department was asked to break the breeding cycle of mosquitoes by spraying the disinfectant liquids and releasing larvivorous fishes in all micro and small static water bodies of the urban and industrial areas. The Government also decided to undertake intensive awareness-building activities by involving the district and block level 'Kalakar Sangathans'.

Further Chief Secretary Mohapatra directed to focus on remote villages in hill tracks and forest areas. The departments of Pachyati Raj and Drinking Water, Forest and Environment, and Health and Family Welfare were asked to have regular coordination meetings at Panchayat and village levels for concerted action at the ground level. It was estimated that the malaria prone area has been reduced to 31 community health center (CHC) areas out the total 374 CHC areas. Chief Secretary directed to focus on these areas through proactive surveillance and preventive activities.

Presenting the updates, Director Public Health Dr Niranjan Mishra said that there were around 4.44 lakh malaria positive cases and 77 deaths in 2016 which got reduced to 39, 556 positive cases and 09 deaths in 2019. Similarly, there was a reduction in positivity rate during the year 2020 with 9 deaths. The annual parasite index (API) was less than one in 8 districts in 2016. With improvement in the situation, the API index became less than one in 23 districts. He further appraised that because of the rapid reduction in positivity rate, the World health organisation (WHO) has recorded Odisha Model as a Best Practice in the World Malaria Report of 2020.

Available data show, the State led program named Durgama Anchlare Malaria Nirakarana (DAMAN) has brought this success to Odisha. A total number of 16,088 malaria eradication camps were held in different parts of the State in between 2018-2020. Around 2.8 cr of population were protected with distribution of 1.57 cr long lasting insecticidal mosquito nets (LLIN) received from the central ministry. Around 48,455 ASHAs were trained and engaged in diagnosis and management of malarial cases. Special eradication projects were run in four OMBADC districts namely Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Jajpur. Chief Secretary Mohapatra directed to strengthen such activities at ground level.