India has set specific milestones and targets as part of a national framework to strategically eliminate malaria by 2030, the global deadline set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to eradicate the disease.
Under the National Framework for Malaria Elimination (2016-2030), launched by health minister JP Nadda on Thursday, his ministry has set four different deadlines to achieve specific objectives.
The first target includes eliminating malaria from all low and moderate endemic states and Union territories by 2022. The second objective is aimed at reducing incidence or new cases of malaria to less than one case per 1000 population in all states and Union territories by 2024. As part of its third objective, and a very crucial stage of the strategy, the government will interrupt indigenous transmission of malaria in all states by 2027. This is crucial because it will help control further spread of the disease leading to the final objective of preventing re-establishment of local transmission of malaria in areas where it has been eliminated and to achieve the status of a malaria-free country by 2030.
"We are committed to achieving the target of elimination of malaria by 2030, which will require huge financial resources. We will effectively work with the development partners and civil society," Nadda said.
According to government estimates, close to 10 lakh malaria cases are reported annually from across the country. The government is also particularly concerned because India continues to bear a huge burden of the vector-borne disease in the South East Asia region, whereas other neighboring countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal reported no deaths due to the disease in the past several years.
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