World malaria report 2022
Each year, WHO’s World malaria report offers in-depth information on the latest trends in malaria control and elimination at global, regional and country levels. The report highlights progress towards
Vector Borne Diseases
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Black fever in Bihar: Experiences and responses
This is an investigation into how serious the kala-azar (visceral leishmaniasis) situation was in colonial Bihar, what the government's policy was to control it and how the people responded to it. Until 1903, medical men had little idea about the true nature of this disease, which spread rapidly in the wake of the opening up of communication by rail and road. British medical intervention against kala-azar succeeded only in 1919 with the introduction of the antimony treatment.
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Mapping of fevers and colonising the body in British Ceylon
This paper identifies paradigmatic shifts in the conceptualisation of fevers in British Ceylon, from agues and fevers in the early 1800s and fevers of particular regions in the mid-1800s to a powerful notion of malaria in the early 1900s. In the early colonial records, agues and fevers were seen primarily as a threat to European visitors to the tropics, including the colonisers. In contrast, the fevers of specific regions were identified as localised ailments endemic among the local population and somehow connected to the specifics of local ecology and the indolent nature of the natives.
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Kerala action plan to prevent recurrence of chikungunya
The State government is ready with an action plan to prevent the recurrence of chikungunya and other epidemics, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy told the Assembly on Monday.
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GIS for mapping stormwater drains
Chennai: Stormwater drains in two zones of the Chennai Corporation have been digitally mapped using the geographic information system (GIS).
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Experts talk on global warming
Public health experts stressed the urgent need to address global warming and its dangerous effects on health at the recently concluded three-day long 52nd National Conference of Indian Public Health A
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Govt maps areas hit by malaria
A map, which pin-points the location of India's remote villages worst affected by malaria, will now spearhead the country's war against the vector-borne disease.
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Drive to control malaria
Alipurduar: In a move to control Malaria in Jalpaiguri, the district health officials with the help of the forest department and NGOs will set up 55 fever treatment depots (FTDs), along with laboratories, in 76 forest villages. Thousands of people suffer from malaria and die of the disease in the district every year. Among the worst affected areas are forest villages which do not have sufficient medical facilities. The North Bengal Development Council has already sanctioned Rs 49 lakh and eight NGOs in the district have been selected to make the project successful. Besides testing blood at the laboratories, health staff will be distributing mosquito nets to the villagers under the scheme.
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The billion-dollar malaria moment
For years the global malaria effort has been asking for more resources.Now the field needs to figure out a systematic strategy for spending the money effectively.
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Time to take control
With money now flowing in, the fight against malaria must shift from advocacy to getting results. (Editorial)
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Now, ACT to be new anti-malarial drug
With 1.67 million cases of malaria and around 1,000 deaths last year, the government has changed the drug policy and directed states from January this year to introduce the ACT (artesunate and sulpha pyrimethamine) combination as the first line of anti-malarial drug treatment in chloroquine-resistant areas. Dr G S Sonal, Joint Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVDCP), told The Indian Express that there has been concern over the increasing number of plasmodium falciparum (PF) cases of malaria. India contributes to 77 per cent cases of malaria in South East Asia. PF in the 70s amounted to less than 15 per cent of the malaria cases, but this has now gone up to 50 per cent of the total malaria cases. Moreover the dangerous PF has developed resistance to chloroquine in various parts of the country. Sixty-five per cent of cases of malaria in various pockets of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal are due to PF and drug resistance to chloroquine is high here. Chloroquine however is useful in states like Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. At least one million ACT course drugs will be supplied to the high endemic states. So far the government had supplied 20 crore tablets of chloroquine in the country. This quantum of drugs will be slightly reduced, Sonal said. According to Dr A P Dash, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), the PF species of malaria is spreading wider due to migration of population from endemic to non-endemic areas and drug sensitivity studies from various states have observed that there is resistance to the drug chloroquine - which is being used as the first line of treatment for malaria cases. The last time the policy was revised was in 2003. Vaccine for malaria Two sites have been selected for trial of a vaccine against malaria. Epidemiological and immunological data will be collected from the sites selected in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh to test the vaccine. The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Delhi, has developed the vaccine and will be tested at these two sites, Director, National Institute of Malaria Research Dr A P Dash said.