Context: India the only high endemic country, which has reported a decline of 17.6% in 2019 over 2018.

• The World Malaria Report (WMR) 2020 released by WHO, which gives the estimated cases for malaria across the world, based on mathematical projections, indicates that India has made considerable progress in reducing its malaria burden.
• India is the only high endemic country, which has reported a decline of 17.6% in 2019 as compared to 2018.
• The Annual Parasitic Incidence (API) reduced by 27.6% in 2018 compared to 2017 and by 18.4% in 2019 as compared to 2018. India has sustained API less than one since year 2012.
• India achieved a reduction of 83.34% in malaria morbidity and 92% in malaria mortality between the year 2000 (20,31,790 cases, 932 deaths) and 2019 (3,38,494 cases, 77 deaths), thereby achieving Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals (50-75% decrease in case incidence between 2000 and 2019).
• Decrease in incidence of Malaria cases is also exhibited in the year-on-year tally. The cases and fatalities have declined significantly by 21.27% and 20% in the year 2019 (3,38,494 cases, 77 deaths) as compared to 2018 (4,29,928 cases, 96 deaths).
• Malaria Elimination efforts were initiated in the country in 2015 and were intensified after the launch of National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) in 2016 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (2017-22) was launched by the Health Ministry in July, 2017 which laid down strategies for the next five years.
• States of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Madhya Pradesh disproportionately accounted for nearly 45.47 percent (1,53,909 cases out of India’s 3,38,494 cases) of malaria cases and 70.54 percent (1,10,708 cases out of India’s 1,56,940 cases) of falciparum Malaria cases in 2019.
• Due to the efforts made by the Government of India in provision of microscopes, rapid diagnostics Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) – about 5 crores have been distributed in 7 North-East States, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha up to 2018-19 and another 2.25 crore LLINs are being supplied/distributed during current financial year to high burden areas leading to reduction in endemicity in these otherwise very high endemic states.

High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) initiative

• WHO has initiated the High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) initiative in 11 high malaria burden countries, including India.
• Implementation of “High Burden to High Impact (HBHI)” initiative has been started in four states i.e. West Bengal and Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in July, 2019.
• A key strategy to reignite progress is the “High burden to high impact” (HBHI) response, catalyzed in 2018 by WHO and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria continued to make impressive gains in India, with 18% reductions in cases and 20% reductions in death respectively, over the last 2 years.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1677601#:~:text=The%20percentage%20drop%20in%20the,73.9%25%20between%202000%20to%202019.&text=The%20total%20number%20of%20malaria,2019%20(2%2C86%2C091).

e Sanjeevani

Context: eSanjeevani, Health Ministry’s national telemedicine initiative completed 9 lakh consultations.

• The top ten States with highest consultations through eSanjeevani and eSanjeevani OPD platforms are Tamil Nadu (2,90,770), Uttar Pradesh (2,44,211), Kerala (60,401), Madhya Pradesh (57,569), Gujarat (52,571), Himachal Pradesh (48,187), Andhra Pradesh (37,681), Uttarakhand (29,146), Karnataka (26,906), and Maharashtra (10,903).

Telemedicine

• Telemedicine is a new modality for remote diagnosis and treatment of patients over internet.
• eSanjeevani enables virtual meetings between the patients and doctors & specialists from geographically dispersed locations, through video conferencing that occurs in real time.
• At the end of these remote consultations, eSanjeevani generates an electronic prescriptions which can be used for sourcing medicines.
• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has launched two variants of eSanjeevani namely - doctor to doctor (eSanjeevani AB-HWC) in hub and spoke model and patient to doctor (eSanjeevaniOPD).

eSanjeevani

• It is a telemedicine variant for public to seek health services remotely, it was rolled out on 13th of April 2020 during the first lockdown in the country.
• The Health Ministry is in regular touch with States to formulate strategies for extending the reach of eSanjeevani services to the underprivileged section of the society too.
• Few States like Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat etc., are experimenting various models to provision eSanjeevani services for non-IT savvy as well as poor patients, who do not have access to the Internet.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1677674

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