Regional review meeting underway in Sohra
Shillong: Malaria cases in Meghalaya have declined by 74 per cent over the past 3 years, according to Avdhesh Kumar, Additional Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP).
Kumar informed this during a regional review meeting of the Global Fund to fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) supported states for the Intensified Malaria Elimination Project (IMEP) under NVBDCP in Sohra on Friday.
Addressing the gathering, Kumar said according to the World Malaria Report of 2018, most cases of Malaria in the world is contributed by Sub-Saharan African countries and India stands at number four with regard to the prevalence of Malaria.
“However, India is the only country which showed a decline of 24 per cent in Malaria cases,” he said.
Meghalaya is one of the best performing states when it comes to Malaria intervention and control programmes and has been selected as a model state for programme implementation during the 6th national summit on good, replicable practices and innovations in public health care system in India.
“Malaria cases in Meghalaya have declined by 74 per cent over the past 3 years,” he said.
“However, we should not be complacent. In order to eliminate malaria, we need to further intensify our efforts and programmes,” he added.
The meet, which will conclude on Saturday, aims to review the state-wise performance and activities including the district-wise implementation of all the North Eastern States and the achievements made so far.
Minister of Health and Family Welfare AL Hek attended the inaugural meeting as the chief guest along with representatives from all North Eastern states.
In his address, Hek said that the entire team members present at the meeting were the main driving force and true ambassadors in the fight to eradicate malaria.
He stressed that through the active participation of the people, a solution will inevitably come up to further improve the programme’s performance which will help in achieving the goal of total Malaria elimination by 2030.
R. Lyngdoh, Deputy Director of Health Services (MI)-cum-State Project Officer, NVBDCP, gave a presentation on the malaria programme in Meghalaya and informed that the state is finally moving away from being a Category-3 state which is at the ‘Intensified Control Phase’ to Category-2 which is the ‘Pre Elimination phase’.
She said that Malaria elimination in Meghalaya will be carried out in phases by taking ‘Annual Parasitic Incidence’ (API) as the primary criteria.
Others who spoke on the occasion included A War, Director of Health Services (MI), SD Mazumdar, Senior Regional Director, H&FW, M. Warshong, Senior Medical and Health Officer and S Lyngdoh, state entomologist.