India is unable to eliminate malaria and dengue because of a lack of testing and diagnosis of these diseases, and because of delayed treatment, experts say. In addition, climate change is making the weather more conducive to mosquitos, the vectors that spread these diseases.
India accounted for about 82% of all malaria deaths and as many cases in South-East Asia in 2020. Reported cases of dengue increased 22%, from 1,57,315 cases in 2019 to 1,93,245 cases in 2021.
Both malaria and dengue are vector-borne diseases, spread by organisms, like mosquitoes, that transport parasites and pathogens from one infected person (or animal) to another. Of all vector-borne diseases in India, the most cases in 2021 were of dengue and malaria, government data shows. These are the latest comparative data available for vector-borne diseases.
India needs to ramp up testing, collect better data on the prevalence of these diseases and decentralise care at the village-level, experts say.
If India is able to eradicate malaria, it will join countries, including Iran and Malaysia, that have not reported a single malaria case for the past three years as of 2020, and China and El Salvador that were declared malaria-free in 2021.
Progress so far
Malaria, transmitted by the infective bite of the Anopheles mosquito, is caused by four types of parasites, two of which,…
