Control, Eradication and Resurgence of Malaria in Kerala During the Past 50 Years

Abstract

Malaria is an important health problem in many parts of Asia, South America and Africa. Malaria is not eradicated form Kerala even after implementation of various ma1aria control strategies.
Objective: Incidence of malaria in Kerala during the last 50 years and also the effectiveness of various malaria control programmes during the same period investigated.
Methodology: Secondary data on malaria were collected from the various health reports and registers. Malaria was eradicated from Kerala in 1965. However malaria returned to Kerala after few years and continued to spread. Resurgence of malaria was due to many reasons, which include interstate and international travel, inadequate environmental sanitation, import of cases and mosquitoes from other states, migration of increased number of laborers from other states, absence of organized preventive public health system in urban areas, urbanization and inadequate filed work.
Result: Active and passive surveillance form important components in malaria eradication and control programmes. Case
detection rate in active surveillance was less than 0.2 % and in mass and contact survey it was less than 0.05%.