While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had waged a war against malaria with its 'Fight the Bite' campaign, which led to increased awareness among citizens and a steady decline in the number of patients testing positive for the vector-borne disease, the city is still a far way from completely eliminating malaria. This monsoon, the disease has already claimed two lives and a total of 2,611 cases were reported in Mumbai in 2017 so far, said Santosh Revankar, deputy health executive officer of the BMC.
While city doctors say they are relieved to see fewer malaria patients as compared to three to four years ago, Revankar said Mumbai continues to face several issues in eliminating malaria. “The first challenge is that the environmental conditions are favourable for mosquitoes to breed...Construction sites continue to be breeding spots for mosquitoes and many workers who come to the city are from endemic areas,” he added.
He further said the high population density in Mumbai and faulty water storage techniques due to water shortage are other major challenges faced by the city. Revankar pointed out that there are several inaccessible mosquito-genic situations in government and semi-government premises like the railway yards, army, navy and air force areas apart from dilapidated mills. “On top of that, 60 per cent of the city is slums or people live in slum like conditions,’ he added.
He said non-adherence to treatment protocol as per National Drug Policy by some private medical practitioners is also a cause of worry. This, in turn, leads to further transmission of the malaria parasite , he added.
According to data released by NGO Praja Foundation, malaria cases have decreased by 47 per cent from 2012-13 to 2016-17, which is the result of the BMC’s 'Fight the Bite' campaign. In 2016-17, it is estimated that there were 11,607 cases of malaria in Mumbai, according to the white paper report.
