RAIPUR: The Bastar division, which had the annual parasite incidence (API-Malaria) of 16.80—among the highest in the country when Chhattisgarh was carved-out in the year 2000, has achieved a significant triumph over the persisting challenge of the vector-borne disease under its massive campaign ‘Malaria Mukt Bastar’. The latest recorded API rate now stands at 1.17, the lowest in the history of the state.
The API-10 is equivalent to 10 cases per thousand people. Under the Malaria-Free Bastar campaign that began during the late 2019 covered the seven districts of the Division, as many as 14.06 lakh people have been screened during the first phase, 23.75 lakh in the second phase and 10.58 lakh for the third phase.
The ongoing campaign during the three phases respectively traced 64646, 30076 and 14828 people found to be suffering from malaria and were promptly treated.
In the Bastar zone 2,804 health survey teams accessed 3,226 remote villages, some in inhospitable forested terrain, of seven districts. They examined the blood samples through Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT).
The toe of the tested person was marked with indelible ink as identification. After diagnosis, patients are given complete treatment with free medicines. Those in serious conditions were shifted to health centres and hospitals.
The health awareness drive and preventive steps included source reduction activities to eliminate mosquito breeding places in local dialects. “The objective is to eliminate re-establishment of local transmission and resurgence, making Bastar area malaria-free,” said Dr Priyanka Shukla, Mission Director, National Health Mission.
Following the success of Malaria-Free Bastar campaign, the state has embarked upon the Malaria-Free Chhattisgarh mission. To begin with, the north Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja division is presently taken up, where the treatment process for 3.70 lakh cases found positive have begun.