About the National Strategic Plan for Elimination of Malaria
It was launched by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare. India has set its goal to eliminate Malaria by 2027 three years ahead of 2024 which is the global deadline for the elimination of Malaria.
Objective Of Plan
The Framework has four objectives:
- Eliminate malaria from all 26 low (Category 1) and moderate (Category 2) transmission states/union territories (UTs) by 2022
- Reduce the incidence of malaria to less than 1 case per 1000 population per year in all states and UTs and their districts by 2024
- Interrupt indigenous transmission of malaria throughout the entire country, including all high transmission states and union territories (UTs) (Category 3) by 2027 and
- Prevent the re-establishment of local transmission of malaria in areas where it has been eliminated and maintain national malaria-free status by 2030 and Beyond.
Features of Plan
- It is a year-wise detailed strategy with operational guidelines for each state for the elimination of Malaria.
- The goal is to achieve universal detection of cases, 100% diagnosis of suspected cases, and provide adequate treatment services in Malaria endemic districts.
- It aims to preserve a “Malaria-free” status in the areas where there has been an interruption in the transmission.
- The districts are categorized based on the Annual Parasite Incidence (API) with a plan to totally eliminate indigenous Malaria cases in category1 (API<1 per 1000 population) & category 2(API >1<2 per 1000 population) districts and to bring category 3 districts (API>2 per 1000 population) under pre-elimination & elimination programme by the year 2022.
- Funds will be managed from government sources, Corporate Social Responsibility of the corporate sector, and from international donations.
Why is NSP needed for the elimination of malaria?
- Although malaria was once nearly eradicated in India, it came back with a vengeance in the 1970s.
- In 2009, India’s public health system reported around 1.5 million malaria cases. About half of them were caused by the deadly P. falciparum parasite.
- At one point it even turned India into a malarial hotspot. Thus there was a need for a national plan to eliminate the disease.
