Malaria-endemic districts reduced to 63 in 2018: Govt

New Delhi: The government has identified malaria-prone areas of the country and the number of high endemic districts has reduced from 132 in 2016 to 63 in 2018, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey informed the Parliament on Friday. He said that dengue and chikungunya are outbreak prone diseases and their cases varied from the state to state.

The minister said in a written reply that 96 people died due to malaria in the country in 2018 with Chhattisgarh reporting the highest number of deaths (39) followed by Tripura and Maharashtra, each recording 13 deaths. A total 42,9928 cases of Malaria were reported in the country in 2018.

Further 172 people succumbed to dengue in 2018 with 55 of them dying in Maharashtra followed by Kerala and Tamil Nadu which recorded 32 and 13 deaths respectively.

A total 57,813 cases of chikungunya were reported in the country in 2018. Till date, no death has been reported by any state or Union Territory that is directly attributable to chikungunya, the minister said.

The work carried out in the states to check the diseases is monitored regularly through monthly reports, review meetings and state visits.

The government has set the goal of malaria elimination from the entire country by 2030.

It has launched National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME), 2016-2030 in India to eliminate malaria by 2030 and a National Strategic Plan (NSP) (2017-22) for district level planning of implementation of strategies.