Number of Malaria Cases in Mumbai Increase

The first seasonal rains have yet to hit Mumbai, India, but the city has registered a 71% increase in the number of malaria cases during April this year compared with April 2008 and 307 cases of malaria were reported during the first eight days of May, the Times of India reports.

Health officials said that construction activity might be fueling the increase in malaria cases. "Fogging and other anti-malaria measures also took a beating this year because staffers were busy with election duty," Jairaj Thanekar, a local health officer, said. According to tests, the Plasmodium vivax malaria strain has been more prevalent than the more deadly Plasmodium falciparum strain this year.

K. Harboli, head of the malaria control program, said that more staff had been sent to areas that had been identified as having a high risk of malaria transmission. "Mosquitoes start breeding once there is water logging and we are working to see that the parasite load is reduced in areas where the breeding is greater" (Rajadhyaksha, Times of India, 5/9). 

In the town of Rameswaram, India, more than 1,000 cases of malaria, the mosquito-transmitted virus chikun gunya and viral and mosquito-borne diseases have been reported, ChennaiOnline News reports. Uma Maheswari, the deputy director of health, said that there are a significant number of malaria cases in several coastal cities (ChennaiOnline News, 5/10).

The Times of India also published an article about how malaria is affecting the satellite city of Navi Mumbai, India. According to the Times of India an average of 3,650 people visit 1,350 treatment facilities each month because of malaria. The article describes some of the other health issues in the area (Tembhekar, Times of India, 5/10).