Decline of malaria in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra state, India

摘要

Globally, malaria is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases, with more than 216 million people atthe risk of infection. India is the largest contributor of the disease among the Southeast Asian countries.This study was undertaken to assess the present situation of malaria and its severity, the prevalence of itsvectors in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. The epidemiological as well as entomologicalinvestigations were carried out in 46 villages of three high malaria-endemic PHCs under the Gadchirolidistrict. Most of the villages are situated in deep forest and forest fringes remote areas of the district.Adult mosquitoes were collected from indoor and outdoor resting, and identified to species level as perthe standard keys. A total of 841 blood slides were collected from the local population and examined; ofwhich 227 slides were found positive for malaria parasites (87 for Plasmodium falciparum, 36 forPlasmodium vivax and 104 mixed infection. The mosquito identification revealed 12 mosquito speciesbelonging to the genus Anopheles. In total, 2579 Anopheles mosquitoes were recorded; the average manhour density (MHD) lowest (9.02) for human dwellings and highest (46.98) for cattle sheds. Theepidemiological data showed that the malaria transmission in the district occurs throughout the year.Month-wise analysis of malaria reported cases revealed rise in the number of cases from July onwards tillattaining peaks in the months of November to January. After the month of February, there was a declinein number of malaria cases with very few cases reported during the months of May to June. Annual trendof malaria showed that the cases declined from 34206 in 2014 to 5484 cases in the year 2017. Therefore,there is a need to strengthen the surveillance in these highly malaria endemic PHCs for containment ofmalaria.