This year's World Malaria Day theme is 'Zero Malaria Starts With Me' which aims to eliminate malaria, which despite being preventable and treatable, kills over half a million people annually. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has set a deadline for itself to be free from malaria by 2022 and the officials are of the opinion that they are on the track to achieve their goal by the deadline.
After the announcement, in the city, there has been a noticeable decrease in the number of confirmed malaria cases. In 2018, 5,156 confirmed malaria cases were reported while in 2017, the number stood at 9,297, according to the AMC's health department. Among the cases, most were reported after the post-monsoon period. However, in summer too, a number of cases are being reported.
“It is also our concern to know the details of the cases. As per our records, confirmed malaria cases which are being reported in the summer are relapse cases. These are patients who have not completed their medication for two weeks,” said Dr Bhavin Solanki, in-charge medical officer of health, AMC.
“We suspect that relapse cases are happening owing to patients not completing their medication course along with some private practitioners not advising the full course of medicines,” added Dr Solanki.
The civic body is also taking blood samples of patients suffering from fever round the year and testing them for malaria. “Over the years, in blood tests, there has been a drastic decrease in positive cases. This is because of our round-the-year efforts of looking for breeding sites and doing fogging,” added the official.
The official also said that in the near future, there would be cold fogging machines in the city which are more effective than the traditional ones and will try to cover maximum area. For real-time monitoring, the civic body is going to give gadgets with software. The AMC is also considering imposing a penalty on residential units with breeding sites, which is at present, limited to commercial units only.
